Projects rebuilding after the crash

We took the car to the grove today. The weather forecast changed big time. Temps only in the 50s and cloudy. The mag issues are resolved. The car sounded good. On the first hit the tires grabbed the wheels came up the body rolled the wheelie bars slammed the ground and unloaded the chassis. Here's a few pics from the video.
For the second pass I tightened the shocks and raised the wheelie bars. I also put two rounds into the anti sway bar. The hit was so violent on the first pass the wheelie bars were bowing so a few measures were needed.
Pass two was more of the same just not as violent. I will be showing the local chassis guru the videos for input. He made a interesting comment to me. He said as you get closer to the correct settings you will find that the front shocks will start to play a bigger roll than the rears. He also said to tighten up the front shocks to stop the body roll. I checked the fronts and they were set very soft. He made mention that the shock valving I have may not be enough.
The engine is good. The leak down was 15 percent on all eight. That's with dykes rings with .050 gap. I have two weeks to get this all sorted out. The clock is ticking.

 

Looking forward to seeing the coupe in BG in a few weeks.

 

I can't make bg this year. I traveled to Iowa last week Arkansas next week then the midwest drag race in Indiana and Ohio the first week in June. My local track has a nostalgia event going on so I will attend that.

 

Now I am sad

 

What are the strips in the center of the tires?

 

There must have been something on the track during the burnout. They were gone when I got back to the pits.

 

I just looked at the pics again. Both tires have that. The pictures show the first time the tires made a run. It must be something from the mold. Now I have two burnouts on them the lines are gone.

 

@RacerX...

You have so much going on, I am having trouble keeping up with your posts! Love it! I hope to be able to get out and have as much fun as you do someday.

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Do you strap the car down over the tires?

 

No. I strap to the rear end.

 

the second pass

 

first pass

 

I don't think that tightening up the front shocks will help with the body roll. It looks as if you need a lot more compression damping on the right rear (or a bigger anti roll bar). Stiffening the rebound on the left front and the compression on the right may slow the rotation down a little but the car is lifting the left wheel anyway so it has obviously run out of travel there (unless the rebound is already tight enough to pull the wheel before the shock runs out of travel).
Tightening up the rebound on both shocks will slow the rise in the front but it looks as if you need to work on the IC a little more as well as thinking about some pre load to slow the longitudinal rotation down and get the load off that right side of the wheelie bar.

Roo

 

The line in the middle of the tires is where the smoke starts coming off of them first. watching the video , no line before the burnout and after the burnout the lines are there.

 

roo you are correct on a lot of areas. what you cant see on the video is what the instant center was. we thought we were 59 inches out and 4 inches off the ground. we weren't any where close. there were some inaccurate measurements from the previous scaling. so the car was re scaled sunday. it turns out we were 219 inches out and 6 inches in the ground. with a instant center in no mans land it wont work. the leverage from such a long ic is pushing the body into the tires. the lower bar was on a slight downward angle. the lower bar is now level. the upper bar rear hole was moved up one hole to remove some hit off the rear end moving it away from the axle center line helps. the front point was moved up a hole. the spead is now 7.75 inches on the bars. the instant center is now at the mid plate. i have been on the phone with bill kuhlmann discussing the set up. if any one can help its bill. he knows his stuff. for those that don't look him up. if the car still rolls I will change out the right rear spring that's 150 lbs for a 170lb. with the instant center so screwed up we really cant go by much from the video. with the new ic setting we will incorporate the shock and anti roll bar adjustments. we may have to remove some timing to calm it down at the hit. im looking into what my fast efi box can do as far as traction control. we have some work to do. its a wild beast we just need to figure out how to tame it. with 50 degrees of lead and 80 percent nitro its making power.

 

enloe its how the tires came out of the mold. after the we got back to the pits the lines were gone. these tires were brand new on these videos. they take a few hits to get them seasoned.

 

You beat me to it, it looks like the right rear tire hits the body just before the wheelie bar plants itself.

 

the videos are so valuable to see in slow motion what is going on. in real speed everything happens so fast things are missed. in video 2 a sharp ear will hear how the car is running on gas then switches over to nitro. when it does the switch nitro fumes can be seen coming out of the pipes as the tone changes. the crazy ideas do work.

 

Now that the car is scaled a print out can be made to take to the track. The print out identifies the bracket hole locations. It gives the combinations to arrive at different instant centers. Most of the combinations wont work. We are concerned with instant centers from 50 inches out to 80 inches out. This is measured from the axle center line forward. The chart wont tell you what's best for your car. What it will do is provide combinations to pick from. A hit is made on the car. The data is looked over. If more or less bite is needed the ability is there to accurately select a new instant center. Experience and trial and error take over from here.
If the ride height or pinion angle is changed it will effect the instant centers a little. The front brackets are welded to the chassis. If the chassis is raised or lowered so do the brackets. If the rear end is rotated for pinion angle the brackets welded to it move closer or further away from the axle center line. Going to the track with a couple of instant centers to try is how we do it. Shock settings; tire pressure; coil springs; wheelie bar settings etc can refine the instant center. Here is the way it looks for my car and my brackets. Its unique to my car yours will be different guaranteed.

 

Here are those pages

 

Thanks.

 

While on the way to wagler dragway in southern Indiana for the summit midwest drag and drive event I made a stop at Schumacher racing for a drum of nitro. All the teams were back getting ready for the Topeka race this weekend. I was given a tour of the facility. I took the pics after first checking with our guide if it was ok. Several areas were off limits. The activity level was very high. The teams had their cars along side the haulers as they worked on them. It looked like a indoor national event. The blower dyno was being run; clutches were being serviced along with all the cylinder heads from all the teams. In the machine room we got to see billet heads and blocks being made. We were able to see frames; headers being fabricated along with bodies being fitted to frames. The amount of money and personnel was amazing.
We are all teched in ready for day one Wednesday. We need to make two passes if the weather holds.

 

I found one fact very interesting on the tour. When the semi haulers leave the shop they weigh 80,000 lbs. That's the car and enough engines and parts to go to the finals. Granted I'm not going for 10,000 plus horsepower I'm hauling a whopping 700lbs on a open trailer.

 

What a beautiful facility.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

Wow... I wouldn't want to leave!!!

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DAM that is one LARGE collection of Wallys.

 

That's only a small portion of them. Less than half.

 

Awesome to see that!

 

Simply amazing, thank you so much for sharing this