[DeTomaso] NPC- Max acceleration

Art Stephens artstephens at verizon.net
Wed Oct 14 14:41:40 EDT 2009


> What famous person on TV said, "I didn't know that!"
> Anyway, DeRyke, I didn't know all that!!!<
>
> I'm thinking Johnny Carson,  but I think it was "I did not know that" ?

Art



>
>
>
>> 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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