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Racing Clutch

06/29/02*

Race Trick #1--->  We notice it is some times hard to drive your own race. You keep looking for a way to gain a few feet on the leader, or a  place to pass. Maybe you find you can go just a little deeper into the corner and before long you pay more attention to when his brake lights come on then to your braking spot. Now if it's really dusty you depend on those brake lights more and more. 
 How to make the best of this fact.? 
You install a small switch on the steering wheel, not to be used very much, but it can make the difference between winning & loosing. A lot of drivers start really pushing hard on the last lap or two, so that is the perfect time to use your new little brake light switch. Drive as deep into the corner as before but tap the new brake light switch a little before you actually hit the brake pedal. It only works once or twice per corner so don't over do it. On second thought this doesn't sound fair so just forget it. ;-) Vic.

Trick #2 --> #1 was for helping keep the lead but what if your stuck in #2 position and trying hard to pass.  Well if your going to pass just honk your horn so they pull over. If your driving a little over your head just to put pressure on the leader, the only time you can hit the horn button is down the straight. When the next corner gets close your very busy trying to brake, shift, and holding on to the steering wheel with both hands, so reaching for the horn button is not an option. 
 How to make the best of this. 
  Install another on-off switch that hooks to the horn. Then pull up close as you can and just flip the horn switch on and leave it on all the way through the corner down the short straight and through the next corner. It takes a mighty good driver to ignore that dam horn for very many corners. And of course it starts to bug him a lot. Chances are increasing he might make a little mistake that will make the difference. 
  It's a good Idea to appear to be replacing the horn solenoid when he wanders over to your pits after the race. Man those things drive me crazy when they stick, must be all the dust you were kicking up. :-) Vic. 

Redirect their attention -->   
 We glued an old tire gage with the needle set at 25# way down behind the buggy's fuel cell, almost out of sight. In no time there was talk about the use of  Nitrous being illegal. 

Some things work some don't --> After lots of Dyno time we found the Anti-reversionary Exhaust that Bob Rodin designed for his class 9 car and later sold to Cyclone Exhaust, would always show a HP gain. 104 Octane booster would also more then likely increase the power slightly, only slightly and only at the recommended ratios

 Propylene Oxide was a blender agent used by the Dragster Crowd. It worked wonders, adding about 10% to any fuel, would let you set the timing way up with no pre-ignition. It would eat through most gaskets and fuel line. On a hot day it would be gone in an hour or so.. Pour a pint of straight propylene oxide on the floor and it would evaporate before you could wipe it up.  Put it in for a heat race and pump it back out into the pressurized pop cans as soon as you pull into the pits. Then as every one started pulling out on the track, you put it back in the tank.  Question of  legality was not settled. We asked many questions and never found good answers, One person would tell us it caused cancer and a chief from a large bakery said they bought it in 50 gallon drums. Don't mess with it until you check it out. 

We had some Formula V customers that told us about flipping the pistons over to gain a little HP. The wrist pins are offset to help reduce the piston slap noise. This gives us the most Brilliant Idea, We take our 1600cc stock class motor and run lots of Dyno runs to get accurate reading.  We then find a late model 40 hp case from Germany. (case is cut for the smaller 77mm P&C without case savers, hard to find but it'll be worth it.) We now set up each, case half on the Bridge Port and bore the case out for the 1600cc 85.5 P&C. Moving one side up .060" and the other side down .060".  So we now have the centerline of the cylinder offset for an added leverage advantage. Lots of work but what a great Idea. Next step indicate each case stud and bore the hole offset the same direction as the cylinders.  One down and only 15 to go. Talk about time consuming. Well a few days in front of the bridge port and then the motor goes back together again. I can't believe no one has tried this before, or maybe their out there running away from every one else. Few more days assembling the motor and a trip to the doctor from all those hours in front of the mill.   
  Now's the time we prove our brilliant idea really works. Back on the Dyno and taking multiple runs. 
Pull out the first Dyno sheet to compare to the second run. 

  Recheck the Dates on the Dyno Sheets ( Must be the same sheet ) No difference, None, Every things the same. Check the Dyno sheets date again. Some body's playing a cruel joke. We had to have gained some HP or maybe even loose a little but no way can it be the same. You can't even get the exact same reading on the same motor on two different days. Some body's not very funny. Back to the Dyno for another run and this time I do all the paper work. Can't believe it. Still the same. 
  Lets see when the crank is 20 degrees past TDC the piston is now in a different location and the valves are not in the same relation to the Piston. To make the most of all the changes will try some different cams, compression ratios, timing and, and ~.
  To shorten this story will explain the experimental block is the shed with some of our other top secret experiments. Some day we might pull it back out and try ~~~~  but not now, maybe later when I have more time. :-(    Vic.

It only takes one quart of oil. --> We were at a local track one day watching the other cars coming off a big jump. Towards the end of the race this weirdo runs out on the track with a quart of oil and dumps the whole quart just past where the cars are landing. You had to be there to see this. Every  driver seeing  this large spot of oil in the track would nod down to check his gages. Every car, next lap same thing, head down for a quick gage check. You just can't help yourself, when there's oil on the track it just might be yours. The longer the race the more paranoid you get. Your start to hear strange little noises and imagine all kinds of problems developing and on the next lap the same spot of oil can just barely be seen, but just to be on the safe side check the oil gage one more time. Vic.

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