Under Performers

[BLSTIC]

I race dirt speedway in Australia. Most of the guys who spend the money but don't get the results here spend their money on "bigness". Big cams, big rpm, big horsepower, then forget about how to corner weight a car (even when they have scales) and run old tyres.

Then they get their ass handed to them by guys who know what average horsepower means, don't set their car up for maximum sideways and spend $500 a year on tyres.

I really wish I could help some of them but usually their ego gets in the way.

[BLSTIC]

The short shift thing bugs me far too often.
A mythical bracket dude has a BBC, lots of good stuff that indicates it needs shifted around 8500.
It is an under performer.
Said dude shifts it at 6800.
Why?
"I don't want to hurt it."
I don't even bother trying to explain it these days.
I just nod and walk away.

How about "it peaks at 6500, why would I ever rev it past that?"

Average power is a concept lost on people, so is that even if it makes less power at 7000 than 6500 it's still going to be more than the horsepower at 4500 after the shift.

[Racer18]

I love it when a customer wants their engine to sound like a top fuel car at idle, but wants it to perform on the street. I always tell them you can't have both. Pick one.

[BLSTIC]

Ghost cams are a thing now. High-ish frequency random ignition timing changes at idle for fixed cam engines (I think that's how it works, via altered timing between each ignition firing), messed up cam timing for vct engines. Touch the throttle and bam, messy idle gone.

So they can have that. They're still posers though :p

[jeff swisher]

A lot of it is in the tune. Buddy thought he had his dialed in and I took the top off his Edelbrock and changed some jets and told him go try one more pass. It was 4 tenths quicker than he had ever went. Still slow though due to being told heads were ported and milled and they were not and was told 110 seat pressure on springs.. and it was not done.. many checked at 55 seat pressure.


Yes Gears and converter will make a huge difference as will cutting a light better.

Here is my no power adder 1957 4 door chevy, 10.87 compression 350" with tunnel-ram and single point distributor shifting at 7000 rpm with a comp 280H hydraulic 4.56 gears and 4500 stall. Putting a win on the 2015 5.0 Coyote supercharged mustang of my buddies.
Yea he put down over 525 HP to the wheels VS My 57 with 200HP less to the wheels on a different dyno.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB0vQECFAzE

[Dave Koehler]

What was the ET differences. Nice hole shot though if that was heads up.

[rfoll]

One of my favorites is people with mild 350s trying to go fast with a Powerglide.

[jeff swisher]

Yep we were racing heads up and I treed him at the light.
We had been wanting to race each other for 3 weeks and I told him I would hole shot him and he would possibly run me down.
But i thought I could possibly beat him to the end.
I won by .0595 seconds.

His
reaction time .685 mine was .235.
His 60 foot 2.146 mine was 1.728.
His Et beat mine 12.473 to my 12.864.

1/8 mile he was 8.340 and mine was 8.068.
Battle of the slow cars
Good news is we both drove to the track and never changed tires or air pressures just get there and run and drive 55+ miles back home.
I took the wife with me .. She recorded it.

Good thing it was a heads up drag race.
My 47 dodge truck is 400lbs lighter and it will race him next. It is faster than my 4 door chevy when i stick a gear in it.
Right now the chevy has 456 with a spool and the 4500 Coan and the truck has 3.25 gear with 2500 stall and the car can beat the truck by 20 feet in a drag race. Pretty close.

Truck has better flowing heads and weight advantage. Just about the same duration and lift on cams.

[hysteric]

DAMN!!!! I forgot to mention compression ratio too. I can't count how many guys came in with 10.5:1

Everyone has 10.5 on the dot... No one has 10.35, 10.55, 10.75 anymore... Lift a head off and see the piston down the bore .040, yeah it aint got 10.5 ...

That's where my current combo is missing it i think. It needs a set of KB107's instead of the shitty H405CP's that it came with. Next short block will be 11-1 and more cylinder pressure.

[jake197000]

back when i drag raced snowmobiles there always plenty of people who raced every week,never won.they just enjoyed the experiance .to win at anything you have to put a lot of time into it.every week i tore my sled down.and checked everything.and always tried to improve it.leak down tested my engine every week etc.maybe bragging a bit but i almost never lost.thats against some factory racers.broke a few bones too.

[jake197000]

might be arogent or stupid or what ever but i wont contine doing somthing if i cant be good at it.maybe a fragile ego bad spelling ,sorry.but i will keep spelling

[travis]

Seeking advice from the internet and listening to the wrong people ( other under achievers) . Dan

This one is very true. I used to frequent some of the ford truck message boards, but after about the millionth recommendation that the stock E7TE valve springs was good for “.500” lift” I had to leave. Several sets of E7’s that I have coil bind right around.510”...and you can compress them halfway there with your bare hands

[Krooser]

I have an old racing buddy who's won more races than I care to admit...

His latest project is a pavement car where he is using engine bits that have 10 seasons on them, used up rock hard tires and shocks with 1970s technology... and he's wondering why his ass is handed to him.

I'm kinda in the same deal with my dirt car but at least I know why I'm slow...