Oh chute...more questions!

One of the conversations we had yesterday was how Bobby Martin was able to get stopped (in spectacular fasion) with one conventional chute after running it out the back door while Von Smith's triangular shaped chute, which was also late, appeared to have minimal effect on reducing his speed. Bobby ran more MPH at the finish line than Von according to the speed traps and continued on the throttle well past the finish line, suggesting that Bobby's speed was probably significant higher than Von's when his chute finally hit. While Von's was very late, it was open well into the sand and beyond. One of the things I was told was how the triangular shaped chutes hit softer than a conventional cross form chutes.

Back when I drove my best description of how cross forms hit at about 250 was likening it to the hand of God grabbing the back of the car in a tug that became breath taking, then relaxing. Or, like taking a bungie jump off a bridge where you would feel the tug (which would get stronger and stronger) pushing you out of the seat and hanging you into the seat belts, then softly relaxing.

It would be interesting to see what the G-meter says about the difference between the two when only one is deployed in the same conditions (wind speed, car speed, humidity, temperature, car weight, etc). Would one over the other have made any difference in Norwalk?

RG

 

Interesting that you bring this up this week. We just put brand new triangular shaped chutes at the last race and are going back to the conventional cross chutes because of just what you said. They just don't hit as hard...

 

Very interesting.

 

Marty Nothstein, driver of the Permatex car was pulling one chute all weekend long, including the pass that they set top speed of the race with...

 

I just watched the race on ESPN2 DVR. Marty hit both (2) "blue" cross form chutes on that run where he went 258. When he red lit against Harker they did not show Marty in the shut down.

 

Two Chutes

My brother has a rule, and it is two chutes.
We did have one go under the car on one run. Imagine if it was the only chute used? We also have the spring loaded packs from Denis to help launch the chutes.

 

Agreed... The brand new chutes go back in the trailer to serve as spares and new pilot chutes were bought to put on the old chutes that are going back on the car before our next outing...

We only changed the chutes because the old pilot chutes were beat up pretty good. Instead of changing pilots we put the new chutes on.

 

So is that why it is common for door cars ie: pro mod and pro stock, to use the triangle chutes? So as to not "upset" the car during shutdown.

 

Did anyone notice on the Pro coverage this weekage that Hight's car was having some issues with the pilot chutes being pulled back up into the back of the car before finally catching air and pulling the chute out of the pack???

How much ground did he cover from the time he pulled the chute until it actually deployed???

 

I taped it but haven't watched it yet. I will make it a point to pay attention to Hight's run.

 

The Hight stuff is replayed in slow motion a few times during the telecast... Almost like someone at ESPN was trying to say, hey guys, take a look at this...

 

he was also testing a new kevlar parachute