By Scott Weney of S&W Racecars
10/9/2007

I have a 69 z28 with a back half and ladder bars and I am wondering about moving the front bolts down to move the center point forward. Will this allow the car to 60' better? The car has a 800 hp, 468 bbc and 33x14.5w tires. Will I need to do any other adjustments on the ladder bars? Jon Carrington Mississippi

Jon,

Your ladder bar suspension just like a 4-link is affected by a neutral axis line, this line runs from your rear tire at the ground to the front spindle centerline at the height of the center of gravity. For ruff figuring you can go to the top of the front tire. If you move the ladder bar front bolt below this line the car will try to lift more of the front end weight and not hit the tire as hard. The draw back to this is you must have a good tire and a good race track. By moving the front bolt up it will hit the tire harder and use the mechanical leverage to drive the rear tire down, this is usually the best way to go, but you can over do it and when it hits the tire it will bounce back up and spin the tire, you need to control the hit with a good shock. Video of the car leaving the line is the best way to see exactly what the car is doing and lead you to the correct adjustments.

Scott Weney
President, S & W Race Cars
610-948-7303X111

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