What is the purpose of tennis balls in velocity stacks and other carb toppers? Is it for show, or does it have a real purpose? I've seen this at a few shows in the area. Sorry I don't have pictures, nor can find them on the web.
They are very popular with the players in this area. You get the car to backfire and you yell SERVE, then you start playing. Oh boy.
I used tennis balls on mine at school because I had a habit of finding coins and rocks that somehow made their way into my carburetors
Ya that's what I had always thought. Never know when some jealous idiot might toss something down the tube
Get a carb screen,there is know way i would put tennis balls on any ride,for any reason ever..it looks plain stupid
You do know that the tennis balls are only used when the engine is off? Always used them on Can-Am cars back in the day. Remove and no restrictions. And easy to see before engine start. Not sure if some of these replies are serious or not.
and just in case you might not notice them before hittin the start button, tie some of these onto your balls (the tennis balls..!)
Someone ( idiot creton) is bound to throw something in there . Or kids not being watched trying to make a wish. You must have never had to dig a peanut butter and jelly sandwich out of a VCR.
I think you were serious about the question, so I'll try to explain. This all makes a difference what car you saw the balls on. a lot of guys will build a car "period correct" or purpose built. the rest just throw parts at a car. so this being said if it was a'60s-70s race car with fuel injection stacks(and others) the balls were used, like said above to keep stuffout. however there was also the theory that a hot engine would bend (warp) valves from the cool air coming in from the top and some open valves to the open headers. If you looked the headers would have had balls in them too.
Well, Most big name racers back in the 60's in particular put them in the Hilborn stacks as a way of keeping crap out between runs. Still do it with my Anglia to this day, as do many other racers. Nothing "Stupid Looking" about it if you understand the function and the history .....
Can you imagine what a 1/4-20 nut could do if dropped in there by a competitor? It might get caught in there and do damage all the way thru, or it might make it thru and become a projectile on the way out the zoomie!
Didn't they make them with the name printed on them? Maybe they were red but I am pretty sure they had hilborn printed on the side of the ball.
simple, after the run the tires are still sticky from the glue on the track, when towing back to the pits if you pass thru any gravel or "marbles" the tire will pick them up. When they finally come unglued they are usually headed up and forward. So after the pass you cap the stacks and the zoomies. Anything falling down the stacks will kill the motor, anything falling down the zoomies will leave welts if it hits you when its running on the warmup stands. If your driving the car on the return you best wear a hat, getting plinked by a tire tossed rock will leave a knot on your head and its not like you got anyplace to get away from it.
Wow, I didn't expect to get a big response. Thanks. I was curious because I had stacks on my deuce and was just curios why people put them there.
Ok, well strictly speaking tennis balls arent really trad, it used to be red rubber balls, with a skinny chain holding them together.
I have screen in the bottom of the stacks. The balls are to keep "stuff" out when parked. The chain is to pull them out when I forget to remove them before starting it. They get sucked down into the stack.
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