Mastering the art of the S197 3 link suspension (sixty foot)

Mark is running a 3 link with every component available for it.

2011 Automatic GT, base model. Boss manifold, Airaid CAI, off road x-pipe, JBA mufflers, Mike Rousch tune. Full weight except spare tire removed.

Circle D 5C converter (approx 4100 stall)
Stock rear with stock 3.15 gear

SR lowering springs (American Muscle) front and rear.
Freedom Racing aluminum adjustable PHB.
Front swaybar disconnected.
Stock struts, shocks, and control arms.
16x7 Prime wheels on the rear (old, unknown model).
255/50-16 MT ET Street radials at 17psi.


1.592 60-foot, 11.578 at 118.3 in +1300 DA.

2013 a6 with paxton

1.54 60's, best was a 1.486

- Shocks - lakewood 90/10 front/lakewood 50/50 rear
- Rear springs - cobra jet spring all four corners
- Lower control arms - bmr fixed, with relo brackets on top hole
- Upper control arm - stock
- posi - stock
- Pan hard bar - steeda adjustable
- Pan hard bar support brace - stock
- Gear size - 3.15
- Brand/ tire size - mt et drag 28/10.5/15 stiff wall
- Convertor circle d 3c
- Anti roll bar or which rear sway bar - stock

car doesnt hit real hard at all, and almost feels like its slipping a little out of the hole. what would be the next upgrade to help drop the 60's

onebadgsx said:

2013 a6 with paxton

1.54 60's, best was a 1.486

- Shocks - lakewood 90/10 front/lakewood 50/50 rear
- Rear springs - cobra jet spring all four corners
- Lower control arms - bmr fixed, with relo brackets on top hole
- Upper control arm - stock
- posi - stock
- Pan hard bar - steeda adjustable
- Pan hard bar support brace - stock
- Gear size - 3.15
- Brand/ tire size - mt et drag 28/10.5/15 stiff wall
- Convertor circle d 3c
- Anti roll bar or which rear sway bar - stock

car doesnt hit real hard at all, and almost feels like its slipping a little out of the hole. what would be the next upgrade to help drop the 60's

Click to expand...

I would look at doing an Upper and mount. and practice launching.


How much air do you have in the tires?

18 psi hot

onebadgsx said:

18 psi hot

Click to expand...

i would drop some air out of the tires

I just read through this thread again looking for UCA info and tips. I love this thread! So much great info in here! So far, my front running options are BMR and Racecraft. Two different worlds, but lots of folks seems to love the BMR stuff and there are a lot of cars hauling ass with Racecraft parts.

Damn mofo's complaining about 1.4's making my 60's look sad

DTL said:

I just read through this thread again looking for UCA info and tips. I love this thread! So much great info in here! So far, my front running options are BMR and Racecraft. Two different worlds, but lots of folks seems to love the BMR stuff and there are a lot of cars hauling ass with Racecraft parts.

Click to expand...

Both great companies.

The difference is, our company is focused more on the average persons car, not race cars.

That said, we have some extremely fast cars out there with BMR on them. Also see my sig, we went 8's before people even knew what an S197 was - no BS. lol And it was on the same parts we sell on our web-site.

So I'm looking at getting CJ springs for my car. I was looking at the Q springs because they keep the car at stock ride height and the RA springs lower the car. Wouldn't it be better to keep the stock ride height as opposed to lowering it? Higher center of gravity for easier weight transfer? Or am I thinking about this all wrong?

Also the Q springs are about 1/2 the price.

onebadgsx said:

18 psi hot

Click to expand...

Eric@JPC said:

i would drop some air out of the tires

Click to expand...

Or move to a radial slick.

Hoosier 18209

fdjizm said:

Damn mofo's complaining about 1.4's making my 60's look sad

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Tell me about it. 1.4s and "car doesn't hit hard at all". haha. I am obviously waaaayyyyy out of their league.

1.501 60' left at 1000 rpm
2006 auto car-set up road race style
5r55s w/2500 stall @ full weight (4020 lbs)
Stock shocks
Eibach pro kit springs
FRPP sway bars-hooked up
BMR billet lowers and relo brkts
J&M adj upper and pan hard bar
325/50/15 Hoosier Dr's on 15x10 Race Stars

update from my previous post:

- Shocks - strange single adjustable
- Rear springs - cobra jet (m-5300-q)
- Struts - strange single adjustable
- Front springs - cobra jet (m-5300-q)
- Lower control arms - metco
- Relocation brackets - BMR
- Upper control arm - metco (with metco UCA mount)
- posi/diff - eaton truetrac
- Pan hard bar - competition engineering adjustable
- Pan hard bar support brace - competition engineering
- Gear size - frpp 4.10
- Brand/tire size rear - M/T ET street (bias) 26X11.50-17LT on OEM wheel
- Brand/tire size front - M/T ET front 28" on 15" weld rts
- Clutch or which converter at what stall? - OEM clutch
- Anti roll bar or which rear sway bar - OEM sway bar (no arb)

pinion angle set to -2.5 deg
LCA set to middle hole on BMR relocation brackets
UCA set to uppermost hole on UCA mount
front tires @ 40psi
rear tires @ 15psi cold
front struts at full loose
rear shocks at +3 clicks from full loose
4500 rpm launch

12.517 @ 108.12, 1.65 60'.... (slip)

approx 3600 lbs with driver (1/4 tank of gas, full interior and gutted trunk). Temps were mid 60's, DA hovered around 700 ft; N/A 302 rwhp.

Nice! Great work.

My s197 stick
Strange 10-way adjustables
H&r super sport springs
J&m non adjustable
J&m non adjustable
Stock
J&m double adjustable
Stock
3.55
M/t et street 275/50/15
Stock clutch
Sway bar delete
Bmr relo brackets on hole closest to the ground

1.7 60'




Sent from the mustang!!

lindertw said:

update from my previous post:

- Shocks - strange single adjustable
- Rear springs - cobra jet (m-5300-q)
- Struts - strange single adjustable
- Front springs - cobra jet (m-5300-q)
- Lower control arms - metco
- Relocation brackets - BMR
- Upper control arm - metco (with metco UCA mount)
- posi/diff - eaton truetrac
- Pan hard bar - competition engineering adjustable
- Pan hard bar support brace - competition engineering
- Gear size - frpp 4.10
- Brand/tire size rear - M/T ET street (bias) 26X11.50-17LT on OEM wheel
- Brand/tire size front - M/T ET front 28" on 15" weld rts
- Clutch or which converter at what stall? - OEM clutch
- Anti roll bar or which rear sway bar - OEM sway bar (no arb)

pinion angle set to -2.5 deg
LCA set to middle hole on BMR relocation brackets
UCA set to uppermost hole on UCA mount
front tires @ 40psi
rear tires @ 15psi cold
front struts at full loose
rear shocks at +3 clicks from full loose
4500 rpm launch

12.517 @ 108.12, 1.65 60'.... (slip)

approx 3600 lbs with driver (1/4 tank of gas, full interior and gutted trunk). Temps were mid 60's, DA hovered around 700 ft; N/A 302 rwhp.

Click to expand...

3600 pounds w/driver? Are you sure about that?
Jeeze, I am at 4020 w/driver and have all tube everything.

Fabman said:

3600 pounds w/driver? Are you sure about that?
Jeeze, I am at 4020 w/driver and have all tube everything.

Click to expand...

last year my car scaled (at MIR) 3660 w/driver and 3/4 tank of gas. since then I've swapped front 17" OEM wheels for 15" welds (dropped 52 lbs total off the front) and this recent run had less than 1/4 tank of gas.

Spent a lot of time with some Cobra Jets lately, I've seen every part in them, under them, you name it. Not storebought CJs that some collector buys to look at or maybe makes a few hits in some kind of bush league racing, these are cars built from what were originally street cars and actually get raced in NHRA competition by guys who have even done things like win the US Nationals. The rear supension was interesting, different than what is typically seen. NA cars with the 2010 352 pushrod and the 2010 4.6 3V combos, run middle tens and 60' in the 1.30s, couple of footbrake auto cars and one was a stick car. That's not all out, they still have performance left in the bank. Every car I've seen had an upper control arm that was a foot long center to center, the front pivot point being right by the big bolt that is under the rear seat normally. The lowers were only dropped down by the amount the OEM anti roll like came on the store bought CJs does, little more than an inch, way less than the aftermarket brackets do. And these cars were low, way low, like slammed low with no bumpstops at all. What has become accepted as the norm for S197 suspension would tell you they would never work, but a mid ten car that 60 foots that quick on a soft tuneup obviously does work very well.

What I'm getting at here is don't just run with the pack and copy what someone else has. Test, make some parts of your own, test some more. You'll never be faster than the other guy if you just run the same stuff he does. There's a TT coyote car in NC running really good right now with homebuilt suspension parts, engine, and trans, another good example of working to figure out what his own car wants, not just copying some other guy.

^ Good post kdanner.

There is no doubt that a longer UCA is better.

There is also no doubt that AS/IC positioning can be all over the map on these cars. Sometimes people get a little too hung up on positioning the IC point for maximized initial "bite" - but there is more to it, than that.

I will say, the best sixty foot times I am aware of, with an auto and manual trans - both run the BMR LCA Brackets and the Racecraft UCA/Mount.

It all depends on what the end user wants. Our off the shelf parts have been proven easily into the 1.20's, consistently. How much more those 1.2 sixty foot cars have in them, well, I wish I knew.