How to make your Drag Car live up to it's full potential.
Tried and true.
Combo, Combo, Combo. It can't be stressed enough how important the total package is to acheiving the ultimate ET for your ride.
Aside from the obvious we will examine little noted speed tips and tricks.
Shave and transfer weight.
An old boss of mine used to say, "Worry about the ounces, the pounds will take care of themselves".
Start from the front back and from the bottom up removing every unnessecary nut, both and plastic clip you can.
The reason for this approach is that your front should be lighter than the rear to aid in weight trasnfer to the rear. Also the Higher the wieght the greater the transfer. Imagine a flat steel plate or a steel pole of the same weight. As inertia takes effect on launch the plate will try to slide as the pole leans back.
Move all the weight that can't be removed to the rear of the vehicle. if you are drag racing a truck the fuel cell should be mounted in the bed rather than sunk flush with it. The battery should be moved to the back also.
Reduce Rotational Inertia.
Reduce rotational inertia. Easy areas are the converter, driveshaft and wheel/tire combo's. Especially important is the diameter of the tires. Imagine a 12" 1/4 lb metal plate on the end of a rod. Spin the rods between your hands and it takes off slowly and buils speed. If that same metal plate is melted down into a 2" ball and the process repeated it will reach it's max RPM very quickly.so...
Run the shortest tire possible, if this means wider to hook, do so. BUT it is important to note that a taller tire with the same contact patch as a shorter wider tire will hook better.
Reduce Aero Drag
Remove antennas and if you have an early 80's Mustang for example make headlight covers. As noted earlier we want a high center of gravity to aid in weight transfer but we still want the front low so air goes over the car instead of under where it builds pressure creates turbulance and drag.
Remember the Tree C's!!!
Cam, Compression and Converter must MATCH.
Set Your Gears Up
Select a gear ratio and tire combo so that you are just past your peak power when you cross the line in high gear. Why do we want to be past our peak power when crossing the line you ask. Because we want to use EVRY last bit of power possible. When road racing shifting happens very often, lap after lap and a few HP can really add up after 300 or more shifts during the span of one race.
The idea is to add you total HP from each point thruout your power curve up for a total and divide by the number of points. Take the following graph for example:
In it we have a peak Hp of 506 at 6250. if we shift at 6250 rpm and our rpm drops to 4500 rpm we have a total number of 460.1 HP {395 + 417 + 438 + 459 + 475 + 489 + 502 + 506= 3681/8= 460.125 hp average}... but if we wait until we have passed peak Hp, say 6750 we end up with 482.6 HP average {438 + 459 + 475 + 489 + 502 + 506 + 501 + 491= 3861/8= 482.625}. That is an increase os 22+ HP just by raising our shift points 500 rpm past peak.
please keep in mind this is not for every engine, a dyno sheet should be used along with the rpm spread that your transmission will produce at your selected shift points.
If you have any questions or comments please post them in the Forum.
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