Seattle TAD Finals Question

The wife and I have a question on the Seattle TAD final. It was fairly obvious that Chris popped the blower automatically deploying the chutes, but we were trying to figure out what happened to Jim. The car looked like it lost fire around the 330, but if that was the case, there would be no reason for the chutes to deploy... any details?

 

Excellent question...

 

I clicked on here thinking Adam had the answer!

Kinda looked like something broke in the drivetrain.

 

Disconnecting anything in the burst panel wiring line will shut off the ignition and fire the chutes. Doesn't mean the panels were out as we have seen multiple times.

 

Interesting. So a shake induced electrical failure shut it off around the 330, but then after some time delay the chutes lazily deployed. Todd Veney hard enough at the D1 Regional at NED to deploy the fire bottles and chute, which all seemed to happen at the same time. Ya gotta think if those chutes didn't deploy Jim might have caught him at the stripe...

 

But if the power is already off...the Leahy can't trigger right?

 

Was the power off?

 

Good question. So, we are assuming the motor went silent at the 330 ft mark and the leahy just triggered at 800ft?

 

How could the power be off ?? The Leahy system has it's own battery ---- Are the dragsters setup to where the driver can turn the power off ? Like the box is mounted on the dash ?
Shouldn't the power be on at all times while the car is operating ?

 

Safety box

Or is it that the car was coasting along and finally got into range for the automatic shut off to activate near the finish line? Dave Germain

 

I need to make one thing clear...I'm not saying anybody is doing anything wrong...I just don't know what sets the box off that late after the motor went dead. I have only had the motor go silent under power when the box goes off unexpectedly. No body else had a problem in the finals in either lane after we ran.

 

So perhaps an alternate wiriing schematic where the safety box operates off of a channel inside the timer box? This would allow you to delay the activation of the box after something had triggered what would normally activate it. Pretty smart idea, bang the blower at 1000' and you can coast past the finish before the chutes come out.

Steve L.

 

I am sure that something like that wouldn't fly, I am pretty sure that you are not allowed to 'modify' any safety devices.

 

Oh, it's against the rules?....yeah nobody would do that! It would blow your mind what some people do that is "grey matter". What safety official/tech official would catch that? It could be wired to only operate that way when the car is running, or when a certain toggle switch is flipped (neither of which would catch the ire of the tech inspector). Surely you guys remember the German team who had the traction control activated by three flips of the tach reset switch.

Steve L.

 

I don't know that I would read too much into what happened there... Tire shake does things I couldn't even imagine to cars, and I have a pretty big imagination. We've snapped a motor plate, had the clamp straps that hold the front motor plate wind up UNDER the lip they were clamping and still TIGHT to the frame, fire bottles go off.. As well as snapping points boxes/coils/6-shooters clean off their mounts/screws/rubber feet. Last race it shook hard enough in the marbles at Cordova the ignition couldn't get a clean "fire" input signal from the mag/trigger, basically stalled the motor for random .5 second increments while it was still running. Was it actually the trigger or did it loosen a ground or shake something in the kill switch close enough to arc? Couldn't tell you... Weirdest crap I've ever seen when I look at the computer log.

Point of Story: Tire shake does weird, horrible, awful, unimaginable things to race cars and I doubt the engine dying and the chutes coming out were both direct causes of the safety system.

 

So the chutes just came out after 8 seconds because?

 

All I was saying is that it's entirely possible to shake your ignition system to the point of failure then or soon thereafter, or shake the fuel shutoff closed... Safety box very well could have pulled the chutes after the motor decided not to run. Just using personal experience to provide a logical explanation vs. conspiracy theory. If you're implying that someone wasn't running their chute activator, why wouldn't you just keep coasting without the chutes, get the win and play dumb?

 

Obviously they were running their chute activator. I'm just curious because it came out roughly 8 seconds after they left the starting line...can't you only delay a setting in the Leahy for 7.99 seconds? I know the safety box could of pulled their chute...why so far down track when the motor went silent at 300-330 ft.? Can't you go look at the computer to see if the Leahy had a malfunction? You can on ours when it shuts off.

 

Unless you have a digital channel telling you the box has been activated, all you can see is where the engine RPM quits and/or ignition power/volts(which if you have a short from shake, will show cutoff as well) if you have such a channel installed. Engine stops turning, fuel stops moving, so you can't exactly tell if it's been killed by the Leahy with fuel. So how do you know definitively what did what to what and when?

Let it go chief.. You won the coast off..