Wheel hop definitely sucks

Its caused mostly by 3 things: Independent suspension, sticky tires, and a manual transmission.

Of course the Cobalt has all three

Basically when you let the clutch out to launch, the tires are trying to grab, so instead of just spinning, they grab and "hop" up and down repeatedly until the speed of the car is more consistant with the speed of the tires. The more you let it hop the worse it gets, and if you let it just go theres a good chance you are going to break something, like an axle.

Autos tend to get less wheel hop because they don't grab hard/instantly like a clutch does, and they can absorb much of the energy that creates wheel hop through the torque converter.

This is the main reason drag racers use solid rear axles instead of IRS, they are much less prone to wheel hop. Perfect example would be the F-Body anf GTO, the F-Body never really had an wheel hop issues, while the GTO gets it pretty bad at times due to its independent rear suspension.

Good motor mounts would definitely be a good investment to help control wheel hop in a FWD vehicle.

 

i will add another peice to this.

suspension!

if you ever watch out cars launch they lift really bad compared to most FWD cars
lift is another factor that creates wheel hop. intense racing's web site will explain it way better

but for track days putting 16/17's in the front and 18's in back will help because the front can lift still BUT it wont lift as high as the 18 inch rim so that will help, also lowering the car can help too depending on the height (front back)

they also said somethign about spring stoppers or bump stoppers the stop the compression of the spring at a certain rate


we should make a sticky on wheel hop

 

The dude that smoked his clutch had temp tag's on his car.... he shoulnt have brought it to the track in the first place, but he went up there with his boys...


The dude that broke his axles wasnt taking care of his car. Me and another dude from these forums went over and looked at the car. I have never seen balder tires in my life. No freaking wonder he wheel hopped and broke an axle....

 

well my supercharged sunfires auto and i wheel hop off the line sometimes..........im only 150hp though