ET with and without wheelie.

[Dan Bennett]

Originally Posted by Frank Castros

IMHO the sixty foot ET and trap MPH are the measure of your race car.

I agree to a point but imo the 60-330 is just as important. You can dead hook and get a crazy low 60 but the engine and car are not working together and your et will reflect that.

Again, my opinion only, but a short interval from 60 to the next clock point has to be there to enable a good run assuming you don't get loose downtrack.

[Stan Weiss]

Originally Posted by Frank Castros

IMHO the sixty foot ET and trap MPH are the measure of your race car.

That does depend. Over 10 years ago I was doing a simulation of a PSB with some help from George Bryce. I was able to get everything almost dead on. I ask George about the fact that I ran out of RPM before the finish line. He said he did too, but he gave up some MPH because it ran a lower ET.


Stan

[1320racer]

Originally Posted by nickh

Back in 2005 we ran TS with Jerry Haas built car. We experimented with wheelie bar settings. We found that the car liked 5" height for wheelie bars, our car was pretty consistent tripping 60' clocks at 1.02 with back tires. We went to 4" on bars the car slowed to 1.04, we went to 6" on bars and car hit the bars too hard and unloaded chassis. We went back to 5" and the car went right back to 1.02 tripping with back tires.

Every car is different, you have to find that sweet spot in every car no matter how fast or slow.

Nick, this discussion nor my comments are about 2500 lb. tube chassis cars which can't be compared to 3500+lb.stock suspension cars nor 3000+ lb. back halved cars. Their "wheelies" as well their wheelie bars are in play for different reasons.

Ed you guys have found the sweet spot with the Firebird. Car leaves flawless every pass, your chevelle was awesome to watch and was consistent. But you had to spend the time with it to find what it wanted, shocks & settings, travel limiters or non, rear suspension settings, etc..

Make 1 small change, keep good notes or read your data acquisition.

Thank you and I do. My Chevelle was badazz but a totally different car than my Firebird. That said, in all honesty I set the Firebird up in the first few outings of buying it back in October of 2008, after installing my engine, trans, converter and rear gear, I changed the ride height, front coilover springs, shock settings, travel limiters and wheelie bar height.

This photo is from my 2nd weekend out in the car in October of 2008 after licensing with the car the week before.



In 2009 I swapped out the front shocks to Afco's bnc shocks and those same shocks are in place today. From then until the winter of 2022, when the front and rear suspensions were rebuilt as a part of updating and freshening this car from front to rear and top to bottom

https://classracer.com/classforum/sh...t=86419&page=4

the car has been run with the same suspension settings other than adjusting the front shock extension on race day. The car as I run it today is about 200 lbs. heavier than when I bought 16 years ago and has far more power under the hood than when it was raced in Super Stock or when I bracket raced it footbraking.

[nickh]

Ed how much clearance do you have from carb to hood with that setup?

[1320racer]

Minimal. Basically the height of the Intensity Racing Products carb screen, about 1” to the top of the carb’s main body. That said, the carb gets air off the windshield and the nostrils at the front of the hood.

[nickh]

Think you could be loosing a little cfm that close to the hood? Have you experimented with a different hood for just a tad more clearance? Just wondering.

[1320racer]

I could be. The carb is a custom deal that flows over 1350cfm. As to hoods, I considered it when the car was updated nearly 2 years ago because I wanted to put a taller intake manifold and dominator carb on so I bought 2 hoods, one a Joe Van O pin on cowl hood








the other a VFN hinged cowl hood which I hated and didn't work with our carb location




The Joe Van O hood looked good but a pin on hood doesn't work for how we race. I love the look of relatively quick/fast cars with an OEM flat hood just like my former Chevelle had. I returned the hinged hood but still have the Joe Van O hood which took 5 months to get and is for sale.



FYI, the intake manifold on my engine has been with me since 2007



first installed on the Chevelle’s last engine. It is fully ported, runners extended and the carb pad cut down, done by BCHS for hood clearance and it’s been on every engine in the firebird.