What causes bad wheel hop at dragstrip?

[dwhitt]

Experienced wheel hop throughout first gear on most runs yesterday. Some hop also just after the 1 to 2 shift. I now see how stock half shafts can break with such violent wheel hop. The track seemed to be in very good shape as always. I assume it is my suspension that needs to be tweaked and not the track. How can I rectify this problem? Car seems to have 11's in it with proper 60 ft times.

 

[agentf1]

The Z06's seem to have this problem also and alot of guys seem to correct it with different shocks. Not sure if this will apply to the viper too. Worth a shot. Oh, or different friving technique, shocks sounds easier to me.

 

[Devin 97 Blue GTS]

That is the same question I was going to post ,had wheel hop on Saturday also the best I could do was 12.2 @121.6

 

[slaughterj]

I get more wheel hop around town when it gets cooler out...

 

[Yellow Fever]

Drop the clutch at 4500 RPM and that should take care of any wheel hop

Cheers

Jeff

 

[Fishtail]

I just went through this same problem. I was told by Doug that it could be too low of a tire pressure or shocks. I know it wasn't my shocks because I have low miles on my car. My tire pressure was too low......No more wheel hop

-Lou

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

It's a balancing act. Low tire gets me off the line but then I have to ease off going into second. At least that's been my experience. Lotsa much more experienced draggers here than me. Brunton ran a high 11 stock sometime before he turned into a fat boy. Maybe he can offer some advice.

 

[dwhitt]

My car is an '02 and only has 3,600 miles so I assume shocks are okay other than possibly needing to be different types for drag racing.

I did run tire pressures at 30 psi on most runs and had the wheel hop so I assume I was not too low on pressures. Went with 26 psi on my last run. Bogging the car seemed to work best but I know I was losing quite a bit by doing that. Bogging netted mid to high 1.9 60 ft times.

 

[Drag Racing Consultant]

The cause of wheelhop is from the tire having inconsistent track bite. Usually different shocks or a drag radial tire will help with this.

A side note- Wheelhop is a big NO NO! Try and limit it as much as possible because it is a quick way to break parts.

 

[WANTED]

i had this same problem 27 years ago with my 67 chevelle, i put traction bars on and never had it happen again, could this also fix the problem with the viper? i would think this would work. viper experts what do you think.

 

[HOLD TYTE]

Sunday I ran lower pressure than usual (21lbs) on stock pilots..It hooked but when I hit second gear I thought I broke something, the wheel hop was bad.. I'll forego pressure that low in the future on the pilots..

 

[Devin 97 Blue GTS]

Thanks to TOOOFST, for helping me with a ton of Nos questions and help with my wheel hop, the rear tires are running on the wear bars and this can cause wheel hop. Wheel Hop just started one day.

 

[Newport Viper]

Check out these shocks! These stop the hop!
http://www.edelbrock.com/automotive/index.html

 

[Jack B]

A couple of thoughts, there are a lot of 9 and 10 second vipers with stock shocks and springs. Perhaps the problem is alignment related, excessive toe-out in the rear can destabilize the rear under acceleration and/or braking. As stated earlier, slicks or drag radials typically don't show the same symptoms.