Hi, i was reading the forum and came across this topic thought i might add.
I can try and explain how I try to achieve good traction!
The basic thing you do not want to happen in weight transfer off the front wheels during launch,so for a start jack the back off your car up,heavy rear springs or if you like fit those caravan towing aid rubber spacers into the coils of the rear springs,the stiffer the better but not solid ,I now use solid packers on my shock absorbers,with a 1" bump rubber ,the car weight sits on the shocks.
At the front,you try to eliminate droop,in my case I have adjustable shocks so I wind the rebound to max, if you dont have adjustable shocks then a cheap fix would be too install droop strapsmade of steel cable.
Lower control arm position will effect dive or anti dive,so fit spacers between the body and the rear mount of the front arm(mine are 15mm long)
Axle tramp is very much a killer of a good 60ft,so heavy eurethene engine mounts are a must,my car has a very solid strut brace which has an equaly heavy engine steady brace.
All the power is trying to tear the front wheels off the car so it moves this action to the weakest area which is the lower control arm rubber mounts, a minimum fit eurethene mounts here,mine has spherical bearings and the rear mount is steel with a phosfor bronze bush insert.
Axle tramp can be minimized if the front anti roll bar is as solid as possible connecting onto the lower control arms,minimum of eurethene or for drags only go aluminum,solid.
I think that covers the basics of the suspension,it wont really help if you dont have sticky tyres,I use Toyo 888 205/60/13" for drags that require a street tyre and our team holds the current street tyre fwd Australian record, they work well,but it is important to do a massive burnout. For slick record attempts we use MT slicks again a good burnout helps.
A lot of guys are worried about breaking gearboxes when they launch hard and so they should be ,Ive broken my share too!,but you have to decide what your aims are,if its to have fun then a soft launch putting power down gradually might be for you, I have spent a lot of money on my drivetrain components so they wont break and if they do then so be it, all in fun.
A locked diff will help, not an lsd but a locked diff big difference, tyre pressures is a big part of grip, we run as low as 8 psi if the track does not have the grip we are after, droping the pressures after the run is a must, you dont want 10psi cold pressure because after the burnout its going to be anywhere between 5 and 9 psi higher, so only take readings when the tyre is up to temp.
So bearing in mind you all don't have these components in your cars,this next bit may not be possible for you to achieve,I launch at 8,000rpm on the rev limiter ,no slipping of the clutch ,just dump it and mash the throttle(this is if the track is prepped and the tyres are hooking up good (oh ,only on the slicks too!!!).This last time i went I was launching at 6,000rpm and the tyres were spinning,then we dropped the pressures and it bogged at 6,000 then gripped good.
Street tyres I was launching at 5,000 rpm but sliding the clutch, The driver can make a large difference, you dont want to much traction as the car will bog when it grabs grip, and too much you go nowhere, so you need to find the happy middle for the track that day. Anyway the best thing is have a look at your suspension, get decent tyres and go and practice.