Originally posted by Donn Engler
The only exception to this is ride height. It actually has to be all the way up to achieve faster times. I don't know why but it contradicts general physical laws.
The reason you want ride height up high is to get the roll center of the car as high as possible (actually, it's "pitch" when you're talking about fore-and-aft motion). This really helps weight transfer, so that you can get as much pressure as possible on the rear wheels under acceleration, to maximize traction on the drive wheels.
That's why RWD dragsters typically have that "jacked up" look in back. Actually, strictly from a weight transfer point of view, it's best if both ends are high. However, that can lead to bad aerodynamics at high speed, when you definitely do not want air getting under the front of the car. But in general, drag racers want the car up high so that the maximum amount of weight transfers to the rear as quickly as possible. This isn't the picture I was looking for, but it's a good illustration:
Look how high that car is set off the ground, and it's not just to clear the giant rear tires. That could be accomplished by tubbing out the trunk to make room, if it was better for the car to sit low. The body is sitting almost level, but look how high the front wheels are off the ground!
FWD dragsters obviously want to minimize weight transfer, so there you'd want your ride height set as low as possible to lower the roll center. Also, for handling purposes, body roll in turns hurts you more than pitch helps you. That's why on a non-drag car, you prefer to run the lowest ride height you can without bottoming the suspension on bumps.
a BASIC answer to a BASIC question
I suppose you must have some of that cheat stuff.
