burst panel chute wire...should tafc have it?

Discussion in 'Pit Buzz' started by Will Hanna, Jul 7, 2008.

  1. Will Hanna

    Will Hanna We put the 'inside' in Top Alcohol
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    what's your thoughts out there about the Worsham hood burst panel parachute cable? if you have a blower explosion which launches the hood burst panel, a cable is attached to the chute levers, automatically deploying the chutes if the panels let go.

    i had a pretty good head gasket fire on what just happened to be the first time i started making myself drive into the chutes. it didn't knock the panels out, but since i already had the chutes out, i was able to get on the fire bottles a lot quicker and get the car stopped. the one time i did have a pretty good boomer, it would have been nice to have the chutes already out. there's a lot going through your mind right then. at some of the shorter tracks, this might get the chutes out in time, when otherwise you're trying to figure out whether or not it's about to get real hot, whether or not to hit the bottles, sometimes the smoke is pretty bad and you can't see. in the case of a bad fire that may potentially burn the chutes off, getting them out as early as possible may get some speed off the car before a chute may let go.

    not to mention this is relatively inexpensive to implement.

    the downside, from a competitive standpoint is that it may cause you to lose a round by slowing you down where you might have otherwise been able to coast to a win. this can be minimized by putting everyone on the same playing field and making a rule rather than optional.

    what's your thoughts racers?
     
    #1
    Will Hanna, Jul 7, 2008
  2. nitrohawk

    nitrohawk New Member

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    Fire Protection ?????

    One thing that has bothered me for a long time about funny cars is the total engulfment of the drivers compartment by fire. Now I know that you will never elimate engine explosions and resulting fires but I think that if I owned one of these cars the driver would be protected with some kind of capsule from te blow torch in front of him. I believe this could be done. I also believe the burst panel chute release idea is a good one and costs nothng. Maybe the fire bottles should also be triggered by the burst panel blowing off?? NHRA raised the minimum wt for the increased wt of the new chassis surely a fireproff capsule could be installed resulting in only a small wt increase. Some of you guys who own these cars tell me why it would be impossible to do this??
     
    #2
    nitrohawk, Jul 7, 2008
  3. Will Hanna

    Will Hanna We put the 'inside' in Top Alcohol
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    bottles

    i still think the fire bottles need to be a function of the driver. you don't need the fire bottles every time you knock a burst panel out. it costs over $600 to get the bottles filled and not everyone has spare bottles. not to mention that will cause an automatic cleanup if you knock a panel out, when that may not have been the case.

    there has been some discussion as to how much the v style firewalls that are prevalent now contribute to the driver's compartment being surrounded by fire.

    i think it would take someone who's been in a fire to tell you where the fire actually comes from.

    i can speak from experience that a head gasket out no. 7 or 8 will burn right through the firewall. i don't know if some sort of deflector plate would work in that area. it's literally a blow torch coming out in those situations. i know i had a good bit of fire in the cockpit with me when i torched no. 8 a couple of years ago.
     
    #3
    Will Hanna, Jul 7, 2008
  4. jim phillips

    jim phillips ta/fc

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    you know a small air cylinder could be used to apply some brakes that could be activated by a small switch that could be connected to the burst panel with a quick disconnect for removing the body wouldnt weigh much at all may be a couple of pounds just my thoughts and i like the chute idea being connected there
     
    #4
    jim phillips, Jul 7, 2008
  5. Bob Kraemer

    Bob Kraemer New Member

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    Here is an idea I had a long time ago. What about having a spring loaded cable assembly that has a lead meltable link (or other material) in it to set off the fire bottles and close the fuel shutoff when the link melts?
     
    #5
    Bob Kraemer, Jul 7, 2008
  6. Randy G.

    Randy G. Top Alcohol

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    How about letting the drivers drive the da#% things and make their own freaking decisions. You don't *always* need firebottles, and you don't *always* need chutes when the burst panel comes off.

    Will:

    Once again, a little homework can solve a lot of perceived (minimal made to sound like major) problems.

    I make the firewall out of .050" 6061-T6 and hard black anodize it. Back when Pete was driving last year we tossed a pushrod early in the run and ended up pushing number 8 head gasket out the back toward the firewall. It melted a hole between the head and block large enough to stick your finger through. It burned through the go-over piece but never burned through the firewall.

    In the past I've seen torched head gaskets burn through softer aluminum firewalls with standard anodizing. Grant Downing at Paralax/Worsham Racing turned me on to the idea of using 6061-T6 with hard black. We had a tremendous engine explosion in 2004 when we dropped an intake valve at the top of second gear at over 10,000 RPM. It blew the windshield out of the car, but hardly put a ripple in the 6061-T6 firewall.

    The hard black does a great job providing a few extra seconds of protection from fire from things like blown head gaskets. I literally removed the firewall, polished up the discolored black hard anodizing with some 600 grit, took it back to the plater and had it reanodized hard black. You couldn't even tell it was ever burnt when it was finished.

    RG
     
    #6
    Randy G., Jul 7, 2008
  7. Dave Germain

    Dave Germain New Member

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    safety

    I have read all these safety threads and wanted to toss my two cents in-its about all I can afford since my sponsor torcoed me. (They werent torco). I see guys writing about parachute failures, fires, brake problems. I think it is important to keep ALCOHOL funny cars seperate from FUEL funny cars. I have had several engine failures accompanied with small fires. None of which came remotely close to a need for fire bottle activation. Thank god because fire bottle refilling is 600 to 700 bucks. I have also had chute failures, mostly my own fault, one of which resulted in running off the end of Woodburn into the grass seed field. Would a chute launcher have fixed that? Nope. The point of this post is this- alcohol funny cars are different from fuel funny cars. Safety equipment costs big money. Most alcohol racers don't have a fuel funny car team's budget. Be cautious in over doing the safety issues for ALCOHOL funny cars. It would be easy to make them so safe that most of us couldn't afford to run them. Dave Germain
     
    #7
    Dave Germain, Jul 8, 2008
  8. nitrohawk

    nitrohawk New Member

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    Protect the Driver

    I still think that there is a lot to be gained by consentrating on keeping the fire off the driver. If the blown head gsk is blowing a hole in the firewall then put a piece of stanless over that area which will stop the problem and protect the driver. If the driver was protected with a proper capsule it wouldn't matter where the fire was coming from. If you are going to put your legs over the rearend and the motor in your lap you are starting from a bad position anyway.
     
    #8
    nitrohawk, Jul 8, 2008
  9. Randy G.

    Randy G. Top Alcohol

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    I give up.
     
    #9
    Randy G., Jul 8, 2008
  10. mbaker3

    mbaker3 New Member

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    Don't give up !!!!!!!
    We all have our opinions and all of them are "probably" correct :rolleyes:
     
    #10
    mbaker3, Jul 8, 2008
  11. Ro Yale

    Ro Yale Member

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    Ditto what Randy and Dave say!!!!
    Ro
     
    #11
    Ro Yale, Jul 9, 2008
  12. Bob Meyer

    Bob Meyer Comp Eliminator

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    Will; I say "why not".
    Although remember the burst panel did not move on Scott's car. We need to know WHY?

    Bob
     
    #12
    Bob Meyer, Jul 9, 2008

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