No Shake Zone comments

My vote is for the gear ratio- cheap (relatively) and easy! has a nice ring to it "Cheap and Easy" must have heard that somewhere before.

 

will
nice article,i could not have said it better myself.speaking for myself,we are staying close to home,testing and seeing what shakes out.
tom pickett

 

R4k, you think a Gear change would make that much difference? Those cars eighth-mile like a Bat out of hell, a 3.20 gear might take 10-12 MPH out of them. But not much ET!

 

I think anything you do to an A/FD other than gear change will be
1- costly
2- unsafe
3- possibly both.
fuel percentage comes with a cost for testing and broken parts. adding weight (although the added load is good for horsepower, it comes with a safety factor for stopping distance etc.) Less wing, although a possibility is too much cost- the guys allready have a large investment in wing. To me, a tire size limit is just another way of changing gear ratio.
Best ask the a/fd guys which change would be least painfull. My ideas are just guesses from a BAD guy, so don't carry any weight in comparison to an a/fd crew chief.

 

How does going from 97-98% to 90% hurt parts?

 

ever try to find a new tune up and not hurt some parts? spend some money?
Once again- my only fuel involvement is with top fuel, so I don't presume to speak for a/fd guys- we have enuff trouble sorting out BAD.

 

I thought about gear restrictions, but, since the A/F rpm is different than a BAD, one standard ratio would not work. Two different ratios will become "Ratio-Of-The-Race" game with adjustments being requested at every race.

That is why I went with the limiting the tire size. With everyone running a limited tire, everyone will have the same restriction. Good tracks will allow more aggressive tune-ups. Marginal tracks will require everyone to back-down, and, that would give the "little guys" a better chance.

Let's hear some more ideas, specially from the A/F's. The more ideas discussed, the better for TAD class.

 

Nice article, Will. I think you've summed up the situation fairly well.

I tried to explain a year ago that this is how it would happen... that it wasn't how the cars were performing at the moment... that it was the POTENTIAL of the gains in performace of each configuration that would kill the blown cars if action was not taken to correct the disparity.... that it wasn't the CURRENT numbers that were problematical... but the PROJECTED TREND of numbers that would split/destroy the class.

As you know I, too, recieved the same, non-relevant, responses of "what about Santos" and "when blown cars were dominant" type comments.

We sunk a considerable amount of money into a blown car last year.

It's for sale.

The bottom line is.... it's gonna cost us no matter what we do.

My recommendation: start saving.... A-Fuel and Blown, alike. Something's going to change, and historically, it's the amount of money in the racing budget.

 

Hi Debi,
Do you still have the truck for sale?
Thanks
Bob Lupini

 

Yeah, it's still on the For Sale list, too. Has only 15k miles on the driveline. Give David a call if you're intrested.