Is A/Fuel Really Cheaper???

I have heard this statement over and over. Some would have you believe you can run A/Fuel on a super comp budget and run .30's all day. I've worked on both combinations, and according to my calculations, the differences are so negligable, it is very hard to quantify a noticable savings.

granted, i don't have near the experience working with a/fuel, but i am familiar with every part on an A/fueler and Blown car, so I can and have done the math.

while for some racers, the switch may have in fact been cheaper. keep in mind many of these racers went from tune-ups that blew stuff up left and right on blown cars to a/fuel combos that didnt. in the time since, while the blown combo hasn't made huge performance gains, it has become more refined over the past few years.

there are areas of the car that are cheaper for a/fuelers. on the flip side of that coin, there are areas cheaper for a blown car.

the big thing that is cheaper on the a/fueler is rotating assembly. due to the lower operating rpm's, you don't see the rpm related parts attrition. however, with the new grp rod, you can get twice the runs we used to get with brooks on a blown car. we went from 12 to 24+ with the new grp. that cuts the rod expense in half.

ok, lets look at the savings that off set the blown car. with an a/fuel car you have twice the plug expense, and twice the ignition expense- parts and wires. you also have 25-40% more clutch expense. you have one more disc and floater, and the direct drive set up is pretty hard on clutch parts. then lets not forget about the 90% increase in fuel expense.

now before i go on, let me address the clutch deal - i know an a/fueler can go get old t/f stuff out of the trash cans. chess bushey told me himself that was not a good idea for consistency, and to the best of my knowledge, randy meyer, jerry darien, gunderson and others don't do that.

the above comparisons are based off a perfect world, with no parts breakage - just off parts depreciation per run applied to new costs. in the real world, mistakes are made on the tune-up, which sometimes lead to parts breakage. this is nearly impossible to quantify, but based on my experience and observations, a/fuel repairs due to missed tuneups and parts failures are generally more expensive to repair. truth be known, i would guess brad anderson and steve sanchez see twice the a/fuel heads come in for repair as blown.

the costs of both are also proportional to how hard you run it. i've been told by a notable a/fuel tuner that the cost of running goes way up when you go from .30's to .20's. teens appear to be even more expensive. just as it is with a blown car, to go from the .40's to the .30's.

getting a date to the dance is also more expensive on the a/fuel side of things. i know of several a/fuel tuners that get $5k a race. i have also heard that some combinations cost $25k just to get before you buy parts. most top blown tuners go for $200-$300 a day. drazy has a tuneup that will get you in the ball park that comes with the blower in the instruction manual.

the above comparisons are just a segment of the budget to run the car. pilot truck stop doesnt care if you have an a/fueler, blown car, or Z stock automatic. Tom Bodette doesnt care either. The logistical costs of getting your team to and from the race and labor are a big chunk of any budget.

this post isn't meant to say you're wrong i'm right. it is meant to start an objective discussion of this issue.

 

mrs. reichert,

thanks for the response. i originally intended to include in my post 'there are exceptions to every rule' but it was late and my brain was dropping cylinders rapidly...

for the topic of discussion, let me ask a few questions. they aren't meant to be taken in a dorogotory way.

when you were running blown, how many motors did you blow up, kick rods out, etc that could have lead to higher costs?

how many product deals do you have now that helps ease the costs? i know thats not necessarily public business, and if you dont want to disclose that, i understand. i'm sure ngk is one of them, and that is a few hundred dollars a race saved on plugs. i know teams have fuel deals, that takes a big chunk out of it. oil deals? do yall have a clutch deal or use old tf discs? tires?

if you do have some of these deals, how would it effect your budget if you did not have them?

also, is your comparison based on total money spent or standard operating costs. while i know the bottom line at the end of the year is real world, for the sake of comparison, it is nearly impossible to quantify the difference if you happen to be comparing budgets that involve several blown motors, crashes, etc.

based on what i have seen of your team, you and bill have done a hell of a job in running an efficient team that has achieved results. keep up the good work, and i hope to see you at the track soon.

thanks again for your thoughts, and i look forward to you and others thoughts on this subject.

 

mrs reichert,

grp's new rod really has helped the rod expense. we always scrapped the brooks at 12 runs with jason's car. same program was on shelly's and jay meyer's car. i switched jason over to grp this year, and shelly switched as well, and the rods we changed in indy had 23 runs on them. the set in jason's car in louisiana this weekend were on their 16th run, and he smoked the tires when he swapped feet because a loose fuel line covered the left tire, so you can imagine how quick and hard it hit the limiter, but it stayed together. it actually revved so hard it threw a chunk out of the bottom blower pulley.

as far as bearings go, i know its more tune-up related than not, but when i was working for rudy, we couldn't get more than about one run out of an m bearing. maybe i'm less forgiving on my 'throw out specs' i dont like to run any bearing that i can't get back to .845" after scraping. it even seemed to hit the v bearings too.

duane shields showed me a new lsm spring in indy that he's been running. steel spring, half the price of titanium, and usually gets 14 runs out of them. its interesting, i've always been scared a steel spring can't keep up with the cam above 9400 or so. but duane runs good.

also, how many runs can you get on oil? most nitro cars i have seen cant get more than one run. most of the time we run 2 runs on valvoline 50 or 60 wt, shelly runs 3 runs.