In a message dated 9/22/2012 5:53:06 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
dhomstad@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
http://webpages.charter.net/dhomstad/TransmissionFrame1Source1.htm
Dave,
All due respect to you. You are one of
the most knowledgeable guys on Mopars especially 56 & 57
Dodges.
However you can have a mountain of paper, facts, directions,
photos of parts, specifications, etc, etc, etc. but the guy with the car
that crosses the finish line is the winner.
Nothing has been invented that can close
the gap in experience of doing the job extremely well. The time clocks at the
drag strips do not know how to read books, papers or specs. They just record
the elapse time and speed between two points on the strip.
The experienced drag racer has tried
things that are not in the books and he knows what works for his car and
what does not work for his car, because he has seen the quarter mile
time cards each time he made a change . He is interested in only one
thing--------it is called his ET, that means elapse time in that measured
quarter mile space. That trumps all papers, books, specs, etc,
etc,
The experienced guy usually knows
the strip like his own backyard, he know not only what lane is best for a
quick start off the line but he also know what part of the same lane to stay
away from for a good start.
He know that the right tires
with the best traction is good for almost a quarter of a second, he knows if
his tires are 15 inch and his rear drag tires are wider and 14 inch that
can make his 3.73 rear end about a 3.91. He know when to hit the gas right
before the green light instead of after the green light goes on. He very well
is probably running special oil or additive that give him an extra 5 to 600
RPM's before he floats the valves. He probably has his transmission
pressure jacked up on the high side to give him a harder and little more
powershift, he probably knows the difference in staging deep in the
starting lights and staging shallow in the starting beam.
I could go on and on and on and on, but you
get the idea. I do not even want to touch on modifying carburetors
counterweights in secondaries , carburetor re-jetting or advance curves of
springs and weights in distributors for maxium performance, or
even getting extra high octane gas, etc, etc, etc.The guy who is a
regular at the drag strip is close to a pro and has experimented
enough to know exactly what he has done to his car is the things that made it
as quick as it can be in the 1320 feet of drag strip. With 5000 to 8000 people
in the grandstands he is not nervous so he probably will make no mistakes---it
is just another day in his backyard.
BOTTOM LINE IS: The drag strip electronic clocks do
not lie, they tell you to the hundreds of a second how quick you went through
the quarter mile and who is the winner and who is the
loser.
My own personal opinion is I could not sleep nights if I
put hours and hours of time and large amounts of money into any car
------------------------and did not know for a fact that it was quicker
than it used to be, and how much quicker!!!!!!!!!
Of course that is just me, some may think I am right and some may
disagree. But done that, and been there!!!!
I would love to see how quick your car is in the quarter
mile, I really feel it would be really quick, and I really really look forward
to seeing some very impressive 56 Dodge D-500 drag strip time cards on
your super great website.
Ron Swartley
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