Technical Simple speed tricks

One of the greatest speed enhancers since the early 60's were these Traction Masters.

 

Loosening up the front suspension for better weight transfer. Disconnect front sway bar.. Loosen lock nuts on upper control arm bushing, or place a small o.d. 3/8 " washer under the big washer, and re-tighten. For the reckless street racer..Drill a hole in front shocks and drain them

 

Another racer trick if you had a '55 to '57 Chevy especially. They had vacuum windshield wipers so some
racers would fill the wiper unit, which had a "bowl" built into it, with nitromethane or alcohol. When they
were going flat out down the track, they would turn on the wipers, with no wiper arms attached to give it away, allowing the engine vacuum to suck in the good juice for a faster time. Tech could never figure it out.

 

Never used it, but I did smell it at big meets.

 

Worth about 5-7 hp.....

 

I love those setups.....

 

Cox model airplane fuel.. WOW!!!

 

All of us who did that spent thousands of miles at 5500 rpm reaping all that massive horsepower.

 

When we were dirt track racing we were in a “ claim it” class . That was any of the top five could claim your engine for $300. If you didn’t sell you had to set out several races. Well, we won a lot and didn’t want to sell our good running engine. So...... I took and old fire extinguisher and plumbed it, or looked like I plumbed it as an onboard fire extinguisher. But it actually was plumbed into the underside of the left side header. I filled the extinguisher with oil and airEd it up and on the last lap the driver, Randy Bullard, would hit a lever and our car would start smoking! Nobody claimed our engine, but they did wonder how we finished runner up champ and rookie of the year 1979 , blowing an engine every week!

Not a speed trick, but it’s a trick to keep your speed!








Bones

 

Painting the rear axle white was always good for a few hp.

 

Maybe a little newer than allowed here. Paint your brake drums florescent green or orange. If you were really fast you also did it to your gas tank and inner fenders.

 

I did all the above...... 'cept nitro.
I did have one mentor for about a year but mostly I learned from magazine articles. Most of what I did worked well. But I think there's some kind of Newton's law that when you 'upgrade' to go faster over here...... the next weak link lets you know it needs to be 'upgraded' over there, too. Like the time I "learned" to adjust the rockers/lifters with shim stock in my unadjustable Olds motor and I had to get a heavier duty clutch because the extra revs were too much for the original clutch.
'Nother thing not on our current list; I had a low-rise, factory intake which let me stack 2 of the 14" air filters to make room for a velocity stack/bellmouth for the 4-barrel carb under the lid.
At the strip, take out the jack and spare, remove the antenna, wiper arms, and outside mirrors, and the backseat, if possible.
Science will prove this truth one day, but I swear that a freshly washed and waxed car is lightyears faster than it was when it was dirty. I have observed this phenomenon many times.

 

As was turning your driveshaft into a red and white striped candy cane!

 

Red Crown valve stem caps were good for a few HP.

 

Wind tunnel tests have proved it!... A washed and waxed car is faster than a dirty one...

 

Lodge platinum plug
Hello,
There was one speed trick that my brother had heard about, probably a conversation (one of many) with Joe Reath. The Champion Spark Plugs worked well in all of our Chevy motors at the dragstrip and on the street. But, my brother wanted something extra and came home with a set (plus 2 extra) pink Lodge sparkplugs for our 671 292 SBC motor in the Willys Coupe. He was told that they are a little better than the common sparkplugs we were all using at the time.

Since we were trying everything possible to go faster and quicker, this was the next step. So, carefully as possible, (breakage was expensive over the champion plugs) gapping and installing them took a little longer. They stood out on our orange/red motor as the ceramic portion was bright pink. My brother always told me to be extra careful when gapping and installing/removing these Lodge plugs. We could still bicycle down to the auto parts store, but the Lodge Plugs were expensive.


Jnaki

After installing them, it just felt the SBC motor had more power. But, the powerful 671 SBC motor was intimidating every time we started it. So, any thoughts were drummed out with the sound and mechanics as we drove down the street in front of our house. Whether or not it was true that they improved the power, we had to get some runs in to see if they did.
1960
They did and we kept them in all of the runs, until the end. They were more expensive, but worth the extra power and lower E.T. times. Now, it could have been that my brother was learning every time he drove the Willys Coupe from the starting line, through the gears. When I drove it, it was so loud and powerful that nothing else was going to sway me from concentrating on keeping the Willys Coupe going straight. My brother was happy to have the Lodge plugs in our arsenal. Pink power…


Note: The experience with Lodge Plugs came in handy as we got into desert racing motorcycles. The British Greeves 250cc bikes we used came with Lodge Plugs. We always carried several extra ones in a small tool case and in our zipped up jacket pockets.

 

I almost had a girl take her shirt off as I told her that less weight was very important in drag racing.

It did not work, however.

 

jnaki
I had never heard of the Lodge brand until a conversation with Don Nowell (DND).
Mostly the discussion had been about the Lodge plug wire ends.

 

Hard to say no to a Lincoln locker !


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Not sure if this is a "trick" but several times I was able to fix an under performing car by making sure the carb linkage was fully opening the carb, usually after someone added that cool shag carpeting under the floor mats.

 

Pontiacs:

Poly locks on rocker studs for 0 lifter lash. 160° thermostat, 34/36° total timing by 2200 rpm, dual point distributor, reworked q-jet carb. Headers.

Big difference!!

 

Hey D,
In my conversations with Don Nowell way back in 2016, we found out that he and his outstanding 37 Chevy Gas Coupe was a year behind us at Lion's Dragstrip. We were packing everything up, doing the recovery stuff, and he was just getting started with that Blue Gas Coupe. His motorcycle escapades were typical desert bike adventures.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...-feature-rip-don.1079788/page-2#post-12251301

So, the secret of Lodge Plugs was already out and spreading. Don's Chevy coupe was fast. So, there is some validity to the fact the the pink spark plug works well, overlooking the higher cost of each plug. People will argue to no end about how it did improve the results. But, there are others that say we could have done just the same with reliable Champion Spark Plugs.

Jnaki

Don was one of the staunch supporters of the Gas Coupes and Sedans being built for power and quickness without the silly raised front end and straight axles. His Chevy Coupe raised the front end like that of Doug Cook in his 37 Chevy with power and did not need the front end in the sky in a stationary pose.

Power to the "pink plug racers" and we are not just talking about Shirley Muldowney.

 

Back when cars had a washer button we would run the hose out by the steering column and fill the reservoir with Jack Daniels one hit on the button would fill a shot glass no it didn't go in the engine.

 

Pipe cleaners in the push rods to restrict oil to the top end on a Small Block Chevy.

 

Laughing so hard some pee came out.
So we could summize from this absolute gem of advanced thinking that a perfect high gloss paint finish will be infinitely faster than matt finish or primer...................
Oh shit, did I just let that genie out of it's bottle?

 

Down-Under, they are referred to as a CIG locker. CIG stands for Commonwealth Industrial Gases... a long term supplier of Aussie welding consumables

I had forgotten how obnoxious locked diff gears were, until Number 1 Son came home with a set last week. He sedately parked his OT crapbox on the lawn, and the locked diff gears helped his tires tear up the lawn.


Cheers,
Harv

 

It’s O/T for this website but if it was offered in the speed catalogs of the 50’s n 69’s cmon !!!

SUPERTRAPPS !!!!

holy crap 80’s 90’s bs in its highest “ tuneable exhaust !!! Had em on my 80 zapper had to be worth 157 hp at least !!!!!

 

Up here, a couple local hot shoes would dump in 5 or 6 cans of gas line antifreeze before the evening program.

 

This is restricting oil on SBCs Has any one else noticed when using Harland Sharp rockers you get less oil to the top end.