Top Fuel Dragster Tire Distortion

This was in maybe 2000 or 2001 and unless I really, really misunderstood what I was being told, the cams twist under load and end up out of phase. You'd certainly know better than me, though.

 

The way I understand it is the cams are ground 20* out of phase front to rear to make up for the *twist of the crank* when under load.... YIKES!!!

AND: As said, if anyone is into any form of motorsport, they NEED to see Nitro cars in person... Nothing can describe the experience. Our crew went to the Indy Nationals last Labor day after missing it and going to Indy MGP for 8 years or so instead - It's mind blowing BadAss BadAssery....

 

To me, yes everyone must witness it atleast once. But as far as top fuel/funny car, it's typically the same. Tire shake, smoke the tires at 100 foot, or go down the track. The noise and feel is what most enjoy about the nitro stuff. The best racing is pro stock, and pro modified.

I started out doing the pro stock trucks. When they went bust I went to helping on a pro stock working for Dick Masken who owns Dart Racing Products. Taylor Lastor was the driver. After that I kinda hung around the engine business before Taylor wanted to get into the pro modified stuff and I worked with him for a couple years doing that. The nitro stuff was only a small stint, and only on a bases if one of the teams men couldn't make it or they needed an extra hand. Worked a weekend with Antron Brown. Worked a couple weekends with Ron Capps. Did some stuff with Del Worshim. And I was in Englishtown when Scott Kalita got killed.

 

That's fairly close to what I was told. Again, it was a long time ago, but I'm pretty sure I was told the cams ended up with a progressive twist from the driven side to the end of (I think?) 17 degrees. If they made them out of a material that wouldn't twist, they'd snap, and any softer and they wouldn't be able to account for the twist predictably. So when they got full stick, they'd twist into the desirable cam timing and then they'd need new ones. Again, this was a whole ago, but it was first hand information that I, admittedly, might not be remembering correctly.

I remember being completely blown away by some of the stuff they told me that weekend. That was one of them.

 

Aren't those things dieseling by half track or something silly like that?

 

It might be even sooner than that. Everything goes to hell once they get full power for the first time. I was told the burnout is done with a throttle stop (mechanical or otherwise, I don't know) because once everything starts happening under full power, the only thing that stops it is shutting off the fuel or a mechanical.

 

Makes sense. I know there's a throttle stop for the burnout as you can see them remove it. These "low tech" engines are a damn marvel of engineering when you consider the pure brute forced.

 

The have a msd box for burn out. Most of the time they only turn about 4500rpm in burning out with only one ignition and one fuel pump running. That's a reason the cars sound bad at idle. Once the other ignition is turned on and the other fuel pump is turned on, that's when the engine starts smoothing out. Alot of the times what you see them removing is air bleeds, and jets for last minute very very incremental adjustments. Mechanical throttle stops really are only used in bracket style racing. And nhra has outlawed them in alot of classes so it's all done via msd. The ignition box can ramp timing plus or minus about 100° as it's going down the track.

 

Went to the drags few summers back in Iowa. They had a couple of FA cars running, Drastic Plastic being one. Unreal is a good word describing those things. The cackle, the noise, the chest caving pressure as the pass, and then the blast of heat along with the scent.

The other other class that stood out was the Ozark Mountain Super Shifters. Just effen cool.

 

I'm guessing the peaks or troughs in the tire in the first pic of this thread could possibly be tied to the firing of a cylinder for each one.

 

This year

Her motor makes 11,000 hp, or over 1300 hp
PER CYLINDER

330 mph in 3.6 seconds

Leah Pritchett

 

My dad used to crew for a FC (a Vega!) guy named Buddy Warren in Houston, TX way back when. I was a kid and he used to stand me by something reinforced that I could get under during runs. He said to get under it as soon as I heard it pop as those things would lift out of the car and no telling where they would end up. On a test run one day it let go and after I got out from under, he picked a piece of the blower case out of one of the telephone poles nearby and handed it to me. I still have it. Cool days of sitting on 55 gallon nitro barrels watching my dad and guys work on the car and talking about nothing but hot rods and going fast. Go to a race and experience it; it'll blow your doors off as he used to say.