My new traction bars

[Dave Reed]

Just thought I'd upload some pics of my new traction bars me and my mate knocked up, hopefully they'll work with bringing my 60 ft times down!
http://www.rtoc.org/boards/picture.php?albumid=143&pictureid=7471http://www.rtoc.org/boards/picture.php?albumid=143&pictureid=7470http://www.rtoc.org/boards/picture.php?albumid=143&pictureid=7469

[scratcher]

That looks pretty cool.
What do the do and how do they work? :ashamed:

[Dave Reed]

They bascially stiffen the front up to stop it all moving when you do a hard launch, although I have yet to test them out at pod.

[Schakal]

they look absolutely sexual .
they make the wishbones/arb less flexi pushingn the tyres
on the mofoing road to give better traction .

[Frix]

That looks pretty cool.
What do the do and how do they work? :ashamed:


they should force the front down, thus less spin = more traction!

hot rods use these on the rear, never seen on the fwd before!

Do they work!? ? :D

[paul b]

been used in motorsport for many many years, very good looking bit of kit I might add...

they stop the front to rear movement "tramping" .....they allow the up and down movement of the suspension but resist the front to back movement.....

this is what you feel if you wheelspin away from junctions, as the tyre grips,then let's go it actually moves the whole front suspension forwards and backwards....

Renault have these fitted on many front wheel drive vehicles....
the Master has 2 monsters on the front of his big un...LOL

[Dave Reed]

Not sure if they do work yet or not as no testing has been done.... however I know they work on other members cars ;) Que Chris for the tips :D

[Scoff]

I've ran them for a year or so dave, they work very well ;) Mine extend forward to the front of the subframe, ofcourse they'll work either way :)

[Scoff]

PS, with those, your M+H and stiff everything else you should be into 1.7 60' no problem at all.

[tiff_lee]

Very nice, I see in pic no.2 you have everyones favourite tool on standby ;)

[stu21t]

I've got them on the back of mine. :)

[Schakal]

woudl these be clever to use on the track or even road ?

[Rob@Backyardracing]

Dont want to sound funny but i feel with stock wishbone set up and correct tyres to suit your car 1.7 are doable all day long?? I think what killed your 60ft (scoff) was your old wheels with that crazy wide track off set, traction bars was a must for you then and probley are a must now with the amount of power you have. Im not saying tractions bars are no good they are better there than without, i just feel that 1.7 60fts shouldnt be a problem WITH correct tryes and launch..

[Dave Reed]

Well I've never been near a 1.70 60ft with my car I do have stock wishbones etc the only think I do run is 25mm spacers both sides as my tyres were failing on the suspension. I also run M/T's not sure how they compare to the M/H but I'm sure they are pretty good. O and I leave the line with full power :D gas included.

[Rob@Backyardracing]

i think thats more the problem dave, your spacers, and more so, your tyre.
are you on the 14" mickeys?? if so, its a crap tyre tbh, when i changed from that
tyre to the m+h on a 13" rim (giving a much bigger sidewall) the differance was night and day! bare this in mind, the clio gtt pulled 1.7 60ft`s all day with no bars, but using the m+h tyre on a 13" rim with no spacers.

and the renault has good triangluation in the wishbones anyway imo.
the civic has nooo trianglulation at all, and looks really flimsy wishbone setup
compared to the renault, and even that pulls 1.66 60ft with no bars :)

sidewall is king, you want small wheel, large tyre, as close together as poss
to most concentrate the weight over them.

[Dave Reed]

I do run a 13" rim I have to run the spacers as they fail the suspension. I no that side wall is important hence why I stuck with a 13" rim :D

Well maybe when these tyres have had enough I'll gt some M/H.

O and last time I was out I had a welded diff which made no difference what so ever to my 60ft, apart form make to car horrible to drive on the road lol.

I also no that weight make a big difference to your 60ft times, but my car is as light as I can get it without making it look horrible if you get what I mean!!

[Rob@Backyardracing]

hmmm, dont really think the weight is that much of an issue to 60ft`s, your engines torque curve is far more important.

didnt realise you ran a 13" wheel, thought they was the 14`s like i ran back in the day. is it a 22" rolling dia then, or just a 20"??


i agree about the diff, makes near as damn no differance with slicks, sure it would help on road tyres like..

[Dave Reed]

22" Rob. I no quite a few people who do drag racing and they reckon weight plays a big part in your 60ft time?? But I guess that's like anything really less weight more power lol ie power to weight...... Well my torque curve is in my profile if you wana look?

[Andrew Cooke]

Rob keeps forgetting the enormous wheelbase of the Civic, it makes a big difference to traction when you're launching at 1G. I agree though, given sufficient power weight is pretty irrelevant off the line, weight distribution, CofG and wheelbase are...

It doesn't matter how many times I explain that a spool won't improve the starts it still falls on deaf ears - mine got welded up at the end of 2002.

[Rob@Backyardracing]

i agree regarding the wheelbase andy, integras always out-launch civics due to it.

but remeber my clio pulled 1.7 60`ft`s everytime, no suspension mods at all, not even camber adjusted to vertical. was as soon as i switched wheels and tyres to correct offset wheels, and 22" tyre.

dave im happy to let you run the civics wheels and tyres if were at pod the same, see how they perform for you :)

[Rob@Backyardracing]

22" Rob. I no quite a few people who do drag racing and they reckon weight plays a big part in your 60ft time?? But I guess that's like anything really less weight more power lol ie power to weight...... Well my torque curve is in my profile if you wana look?


nah, weight not that important if it has power to match.

power delivery does!

have a look for some N/A civics online, they pull low 1.5 60ft`s most of them with barely 300hp! the turbo cars cant get close to it, exactly same car, tyres, etc etc, its
simply due to the very high compression, responsive engines the highly tuned natuarally aspirated guys use, as apose the to un-responsive, low c/r (no low end torque) turbo motor, who run a good .1-.15 slower in the 60ft. i was supprised how much differance it makes, but its repeated time and time again, you just cant beat the NA cars off the line

[Scoff]

Dont want to sound funny but i feel with stock wishbone set up and correct tyres to suit your car 1.7 are doable all day long?? I think what killed your 60ft (scoff) was your old wheels with that crazy wide track off set, traction bars was a must for you then and probley are a must now with the amount of power you have. Im not saying tractions bars are no good they are better there than without, i just feel that 1.7 60fts shouldnt be a problem WITH correct tryes and launch..

Rob you know me better than that ;) when I say "x" made a difference, I mean just that, I don't leave anything to guess work.

I used the same 22x9" MH and went from high 1.8 down to low 1.7 with no other alteration, maybe a little more power, not that it makes any difference here.

My old wheels didn't have crazy offset either, the tyres were almost touching the coilovers, they were just 1" wider than most people's.

In my case they were a very worth while addition. But note, I don't have fancy polly bushes or any of that jargon, so going from a setup that has stiffer bushes will no doubt show less of a traction increase.

[Scoff]

woudl these be clever to use on the track or even road ?

of less advantage to a track day person.

[Matt Cole]

Im wondering if this could be a future 'off the shelf mod' ?:agree:

[Rob@Backyardracing]

Rob you know me better than that ;) when I say "x" made a difference, I mean just that, I don't leave anything to guess work.

I used the same 22x9" MH and went from high 1.8 down to low 1.7 with no other alteration, maybe a little more power, not that it makes any difference here.

My old wheels didn't have crazy offset either, the tyres were almost touching the coilovers, they were just 1" wider than most people's.

In my case they were a very worth while addition. But note, I don't have fancy polly bushes or any of that jargon, so going from a setup that has stiffer bushes will no doubt show less of a traction increase.


lol, yes i know your scientific about these things, and i know they work, thats not what im saying, im simply saying he should be able to hit 1.7`s with no bars.

and didnt you change the wheels for your 1st run with the traction bars?

[Andrew Cooke]

of less advantage to a track day person.

I'm not sure, I was going to try them to see if it cured the snaking at around 80 as I go through the transition from wheelspin to traction

[Andrew Cooke]

have you got the pickup in the right place on the chassis? I thought it had to be on the same axis as the inner wishbone bolts.

[Dave Reed]

have you got the pickup in the right place on the chassis? I thought it had to be on the same axis as the inner wishbone bolts.


Not sure really andy, I fitted them where I could get them to tell the truth! I just had a look at a kit for a honda and it did't look as though it lined up anything? I would of thought that as long as they stop back/forward motion it wouldn't matter too much, but then I'm no expert when it comes to these as it's my first attempt. All I checked was that I had enough clearance up and down and nothing was under strain ie bars still rock when car it put back on floor.......

Rob what tyre pressure do you run with your slicks?

[scratcher]

These are a clever bit of kit :agree:
Cheers for the explanations guys :)

[Scoff]

what andy's saying is that the pivot point needs to be inline with the inner wishbone bolts else it won't hinge properly. Remove the suspension, you should be able to move the wishbone up and down freely. If the inner joint of the traction bar isn't in line with the axis that the wishbone pivots on then it won't be able to hing up and down freely without trying to stretch or compress the traction bar. Mine are mounted to the front of the subframe, it took some carefull plotting to work out where the inner pivot needed to be.

[Dave Reed]

Yeah that's what i ment by up and down movement it all still moves with the suspension when disconnected, that's why I had to space it down a bit as it was failing when on the up travel. Phew was begining to think I fooked it up lol. :D

[Rob@Backyardracing]

Dave i run 6.5-7psi on 23" drags....

[Dave Reed]

wow that's low :eek: I normally run around 12 psi never had the bottle to run them that low incase they come of hahaha.....

[Rob@Backyardracing]

12psi is wayyyyyyyy to much, start at 10psi and drop 1/2psi each run till you feel whats best to you.. :)