[DeTomaso] NPC- Max acceleration

[Bill Lewis]

What famous person on TV said, "I didn't know that!"
Anyway, DeRyke, I didn't know all that!!!





> From: JDeRyke at aol.com
> Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:49:25 -0400
> To: 
> CC: detomaso at realbig.com
> Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] NPC- Max acceleration
> 
> I got out of drag racing a LOOONG time ago, and the team I worked with 
> never used fuel, only gasoline- which was bad enough. But here's a few thoughts:
> 1- no dynomometer outside of General Electric's Navy shipyards will 
> actually measure an engine making over about 1200 bhp. All others are 'estimated'. 
> At one dyno test in Northern CA, a big-block Chev engine was run up to only 
> 3000 rpms/450 bhp (the dyno's limit) and the software "calculated" the peak 
> power at higher rpms. 
> 2- Fueler builders use aluminum rods because the RODS compress or shorten 
> in length under very high loads, acting like shock absorbers and allowing the 
> combination to survive one pass (usually). Steel rods simply won't work in 
> a fueler- they're too stiff and things like crankshafts then break early. 
> Titanium rods not only compress like aluminum, they stretch at high rpms, 
> increasing the compression and power on the top end. They were known as "rubber 
> rods". Unfortunately, they also cost 6-8X that of an aluminum rod and still 
> wouldn't reliably make 2 complete passes before shattering from the 
> work-hardening. 
> 3- the blocks have no water jackets because the time of running is so short 
> and because the cylinder walls 'balloon' during running from the pressure. 
> The liners need block support to minimize this. Even with solid aluminum 
> blocks, steel 1/2" wall cylinder liners swell during running, which is why 
> rings and pistons only last 1.0 run (usually), and oil pan explosions from 
> unburned nitro blown past the rings cause many of those spectacular top-end 
> flamers. 
> 4- I have a famous shot of an early   Fuel Altered actually running over 
> his own crankshaft, when the stock-block 392 Hemi split horizontally and blew 
> the entire reciprocating assembly down onto the track. This may be where the 
> old saying -'tripping over your own crank'- comes from.
> 5- And when things go right for once and the thing actually completes a 
> full pass, you gotta stop it. What forced champion fuel-driver Joe Amato to 
> retire a decade ago was not exactly age; he developed separated retinas in both 
> eyes from the constant shock of the parachute openings! Climbing out of a 
> Fueler totally blind has a way of getting your attention.... Doctors have a 
> few ways of repairing such damage (one is laser spot-welding inside your 
> eyeball!) but no guarantees on future fixes, so he signed off. It's possible 
> that human endurance, not engine technology will be the limiting factor in drag 
> racing.
> Glad I'm gone and my friends all survived- J Deryke
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