There was a time when the best thing you could do when sorting out your drag car’s suspension was to paint a stripe on the tire and ask people in the stands or on the fence what they were seeing. If they knew what they were talking about you could work on your setup to get it squared away, if they didn’t you were like a blind guy in the dark just flailing around, hoping to land on the right decision. Today? Today you mount a camera or three on your car, one outside the car, and then you also check the data acquisition system if you are running sensors on your shocks and other places on your car.
Sure, some of the cool factor is lost if you are a truly old school racer but for a sportsman competitor like Anthony DiPietro who campaigns this Mustang, having this video is super valuable to see what’s happening to the suspension when he dumps the clutch and starts ripping gears. You will see the anti-roll bar work, the coils work, and the shocks were as well. As best we can tell these are a stock style shock with no adjustability so Anthony is really throwing down old school which we can respect a lot!
The Mickey Thompson slicks get a workout here as well as DiPietro dumps the clutch to stick those babies and then they are growing lots at speed before crossing the finish line. This video was taken at Lebanon Valley Dragway in New York, the place where I first started announcing races. It is a great little track and as you will see here, they had it hookin’ on the afternoon that Anthony made his video.
Let’s go stick shifting’ with an ant’s view!
