Who else in here is working on their cars for the upcoming season .....we have to have ours ready for a chassis dyno on the 18th of this month and then it's off to testing next month....then race season opens... 
Circle Track
- Thread starter pontiacgp
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Our track out here has been closed for years. My uncles brother has a Malibu circle track car sitting in his shop I would love to take out for a spin on the oval.
dirt track races are awesome and if anyone has the opportunity to go see one you won't be disappointed...
We run a 410 Sprint Car in Western PA and Eastern OH. Not much to do, since we only ran a few times last year, due to time constraints. Fresh motor only has two nights on it, so nothing to do there. Wing rules have changed recently, mandating a near-flat top surface, so I'll get my forearm workout pulling a couple zillion rivets in the process of re-skinning the wing. Many a winter saw us taking the car apart to the last nut and bolt, including engine and driveline. It's kinda nice this year not to have an enormous to-do list.
Bill
Bill
billy, I'm totally impressed with the suspension set up on the sprint cars...it's so simple yet functional and easy to adjust..but those cars are a real b*tch to get in and out of...lol
Yeah, as simple as the straight axle, cross torsion bar suspension is in theory, it only takes a couple turns on a torsion stop bolt to turn you from zero to hero in 10 laps- or vice versa. I consider most forms of asphalt track racing to be an applied science, as far as suspension and tire setup, but dirt track racing is truly an art form. With regard to the cockpit, I'm 6'3"-180 lbs. I can fit my skinny butt in the seat, but the space between the seat and steering box is just too short for my legs, so I've never turned a lap in a sprinter. Been wrenchin' on one for 20 years, but it's difficult without ever acquiring any seat time to get a true feel for the dynamics of cornering and forward bite. The driver is a lifelong friend, but over the years we've had our share of heated arguments over what needs to be done for him to get the old girl around a little faster.pontiacgp said:
Funny story-Back in 2005 we had a series of "discussions" over his inability to get into turn one fast enough in the low groove. He claimed the car wouldn't turn in well enough; I felt he didn't have enough "stones" to toss it into the low groove without lifting the pedal. The track photographer took a picture of us after the flagstand one night as we won a heat race, and there was daylight under the right front wheel. Seems our fresh 848 hp motor was pulling so hard that it was lifting the nose at 120-130 mph as the high speed fuel bypass kicked in. I did sincerely apologize for that one.
Bill
That 848 hp must have made it into a rocket, you car only weights around 1200 doesn`t it ? I assume you were running that front wing so it's surprising that the right front would be lifting. How did you fix that...if you put on a larger left rear wheel or more air pressure in that wheel or a smaller right front wheel to fix it that wouldn`t that screw up your wedge ?
one of the guys who builds a car once in a while in our shop has driven in the Nascar truck and Nationwide series and this year he's building a SS to run in our division when he has time....he picked up some $1,500 coil bind springs when he was down in NC talking with JR and planned to use them in his SS....but one problem..he forgot we run bias ply hoosiers so his high $$$ springs won't work...
one of the guys who builds a car once in a while in our shop has driven in the Nascar truck and Nationwide series and this year he's building a SS to run in our division when he has time....he picked up some $1,500 coil bind springs when he was down in NC talking with JR and planned to use them in his SS....but one problem..he forgot we run bias ply hoosiers so his high $$$ springs won't work...
GP,
Minimum weight rule is 1250# w/o driver for most tracks. Ours weighs about 1500# with 10 gal fuel and driver. With over 800 hp, power / weight ratio is pretty impressive. We cured our problem by easing the impact of the high-speed lean-out. More front wing angle helped somewhat, but not enough, as wing is only 6 sq. ft. Changing wedge or tires was never a consideration. You hate to reduce forward bite, especially knowing the track will get progressively worse through the night, and tire size is more determined by your needs thru the corners than the straights. Essentially, the right rear tire gets you into the corner, then the big wing sideboard levers the car down on the left side, and the left rear drives you off the corner and down the straight. As I mentioned earlier, dirt-track setup is more a learned art than it is a science-and, unfortunately you're never done learning.
Bill
Minimum weight rule is 1250# w/o driver for most tracks. Ours weighs about 1500# with 10 gal fuel and driver. With over 800 hp, power / weight ratio is pretty impressive. We cured our problem by easing the impact of the high-speed lean-out. More front wing angle helped somewhat, but not enough, as wing is only 6 sq. ft. Changing wedge or tires was never a consideration. You hate to reduce forward bite, especially knowing the track will get progressively worse through the night, and tire size is more determined by your needs thru the corners than the straights. Essentially, the right rear tire gets you into the corner, then the big wing sideboard levers the car down on the left side, and the left rear drives you off the corner and down the straight. As I mentioned earlier, dirt-track setup is more a learned art than it is a science-and, unfortunately you're never done learning.
Bill
I think dirt must make it more difficult than asphalt since it must be near impossible to gage what the condition of the track is during the race.....on asphalt the problem we have is to set the car up for different banked and radius corners and hopefully we have it set up so it'll rotate thru each corner without too many issues....and yes we never have gone thru a race nite without learning something....
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