We finally got a great day for T&T. There were some threatening clouds just before we got on track at 5pm but they missed us then cleared off. At 9pm we had a brief rain delay when a lone cloud decided to get the ground wet but by then I was done for the day with a flat tire.

I wish I know where the missing HP went. My best time of 10.54 last fall just isn't going to get beaten this year. I did a lot of tweeking tonight and managed a bunch of 11.0x passes at 126 mph but just couldn't get into the 10's. I'm off about 40 corrected HP somewhere. Maybe with the weight reduction over the winter by removing the rear glass and hatch, I lost some needed weight on the rear of the car and it's affecting traction? 60' times were not great but they were better than the last time I was out. I've had the converter rebuilt since then but I think it's time to spend another $1000 for another converter.

I suppose a bright side is that I only need to wear my single layer fire jacket now. I've been wearing a double layer jacket and pants, gloves and neck coller, expecting to inch into the 9's. Sitting in a black car in the hot sun in all that fire gear is hard on the body. I'm still going to wear the coller but I won't need the pants and gloves.

Points race tomorrow. I managed to fix the flat with a spare inner tube I had in the garage so I'm ready to go again. I burned off about 8 gallons of alcohol tonight

 

Out of curiosity what kind of camshaft are you running? If its any kind of flat tappet, I would check and make sure its not going flat. I had this happen to a friend, he went from consistant mid 11's back into the low 12's because his XE284 went south.

 

Oh anything is possible. Maybe my valve springs are shot too.

Today traction was much better. I managed a couple of very low 1.6x 60' times and that rewarded me with a 10.88 and 10.90. Still not as low as last year but at least back into the 10's.

I lost first round with a -003 red light

 

-003? that's like a .497 right? dude, don't beat yourself up there man, that' light just shows your tryin'!

 

Using the old timing system, yes. Last race 3 weeks ago I took myself out in the first round with a -001 red light. That's the nice thing about the new timing system. No matter if you're using a .500 full tree or .400 pro tree. Anything negative is a red light. My .497 on a pro tree would have been green. I'd like to try a .400 pro tree now just to see how well I'd react.

Even though I've been getting a few red lights even during time trials and T&T runs, the green lights I get are a lot closer to perfect using the delay box off the top bulb than just manually releasing the transbrake button off the bottom bulb used to be.

I think I'm going to have to add a few numbers into the delay so no matter how fast I react, it won't go red. Then if I'm just asleep, the light will be bad. At least with a bad light you can still win the round. Red lights don't win. Well actually they can if your opponent does something stupid after you red light like cross the center or boundry line and gets disqualified.

 

I still run a solid flat tappet in this engine. New engine has a huge solid roller. Hopefully it will be assembled and installed over the winter.

I think most of the problems is traction. If you look at my sig, the best mph on a timeslip was 128.47. Since just about every race day the density altitude hovers around the 5000 foot mark, I can judge power just from the mph. This weekend was 126.63. That's less than a 2 mph drop. 1/8 mile mph isn't as bad. Last year the best was 103.84. This weekend I got an 1/8 mile mph of 103.46 so I'm losing HP on the top end and traction on the start line. Last fall my best 60' time was 1.545 but most were in the high 1.5x range. If I could get those 60' times again, the ET would drop back to where I want it. Even my 1/8 mile ET now is only 7.0 and 7.1's. Last fall they were 6.7's.

So even though the mph is roughly the same only down slightly on the top end, traction is a problem and keeping the ET from dropping. We have terrible track prep and surface conditions. Many of the sub 10 second cars hate our track.

I suppose that's what makes it a challange. You build a high HP car and try to get it to hook up under any track conditions. That's where having a tubbed car comes in handy. The tall and wide tire is less prone to wheel spin from poor track conditions.

 

Our times are in direct relation to 60' time for 1/8th mile track. If we lose traction and 60' drops to 1.59 or 1.60, we will run 7.50's. If traction improves, we see 1.56 or 1.57 60' times it runs solidly into 7.40's.

When we were still using the 305, we saw a drop off in ET and then MPH caused by poor ring seal. The 305 was not happy being spun hard with old bores and rings.

We are currently running sportsman class, do you know much about or have a link that explains electronics class? Here it is sportsman (No electronics) or Combo (Electronics allowed). There are high dollar races later in year that we would not be strong enough for without timing help. Car is very consistent, last race was dialed at 7.48 and ran 7.4871, 7.4854, 7.4821 and the last was a redlight in fouth round. Reaction times are all sub-.530. Except for redlight, of course. This second time he went more than 3 rounds in past 6 races.

 

"Electronics" means having a device no matter if it's electric or pneumatic (air) that controls the reaction time or ET.

Reaction time is done with a delay box. You set how much delay you want before launching. You launch off the top bulb then wait for the delay to release the transbrake. There's .500 seconds between each light so a 1.000 delay is perfect. Since humans are poor at timing, the delay can go +/- depending how well the driver and car react. Leaving off the bottom yellow bulb without a delay box means having to time yourself. It's harder to go 1-2-GO than it is to simply react at the first indication of yellow on the top bulb. There are many types of delay boxes. Some allow the faster car that will launch second, a chance to launch of the opponents top bulb. These are crossover delay boxes. You actually get 2 hits on the tree. Some even allow a third hit off the bottom bulb. Other delay boxes have built in reaction timers etc. It depends on just how much you want to spend. Mine is just a simple delay box. One hit, no bells and whistles.

Controlling the ET is will a throttle stop. The throttle stop pulls the rpm down for a timed interval then allows the engine to go to WOT again. By adjusting the timed interval, you can control the ET. Super class racers use this the most. They have to run the same ET every time. Unlike us where we change the dial in on the window, they have to adjust the car to run the same ET during the whole day. A typical Super Gas car running a 9.90 is very capable of running low 9's without the throttle stop. They need all that extra HP in case weather conditions go bad and they need to speed up. They just lessen the time on the throttle stop.

Some divisions may consider a transbrake as electronics. The transbrake locks the tranny in first and reverse. This allows the engine to come right up to the converter's maximum stall speed. A 2 step can be used to adjust the launch rpm. My converter stalls at 5700 but I only launch at 4500. When the transbrake is released, the oil in the reverse circuit is dumped and the car explosively launches forward in first gear. Just like doing a high rpm clutch drop but with more torque.

2 steps are not considered electronics however some tracks and divisions may not allow them in Sportsman or Street ET classes.

To eliminate my red lights I need to bump up the timer in my delay box. If I go red when I react at the first indication of the top yellow light I can increase the timer in .001 increments. .005 to .010 is normal. If I stop getting red lights and start getting single digit reaction times then the timer is set perfect. If I get a bad light because I missed the tree then that's too bad. Theoretically I can push the transbrake button again, reach over and turn off the delay box then launch off the bottom bulb but there's only less than a second to do that.

Last race my worst green was .070 (.570). I'm still playing with the settings. During all the passes 5 out of 8 were red. Closest green was .030 which is still bad. I did get a .011 a couple of weeks ago but lost the race when I broke out

If your car is consistant and you get low reaction times, electronics won't make you a better racer. A couple of years ago when we were NHRA, the SuperPro class is allowed electronics. At the end of the season, the third place finisher was a foot brake racer.

Answer your questions?