Undefined rant

The thermodynamics of some of those engines is just off the rails! I've seen ice dripping off of them at the end of a run. Fire breathing MONSTERS, with ice dripping off them after their fiery runs. The transfer of energy in many of those machines is very similar to NASA rockets.

I knew Doug Kalitta (RIP), and man, those guys ripped the sky open with that kind of POWER! There was nothing like it! Those guys burn 15 gallons of fuel in 3 seconds. Their injectors are like 1" hoses at 100psi.

They're so fast and so powerful, many tracks have shortened the length to 1/2" at 1/8th mile, and they can still get 300's.

PURE, unadulterated, POWER!! And when you look at those wrinkle-wall slicks hook up...it's almost unimaginable. The physics of the moment, however brief, is just chilling!

Sympathies.

But at least there was a "driver" in the car that beat you.

In not too many years, the cars won't even need drivers, and might not even have steering wheels!


Then it'll be "Best regards to Captain Dunsell"!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk
Nitromethane has about double to punch than gasoline, that means in turn it needs less air to process more fuel.

The higher the sidewalls of a tire, the softer and springy it becomes. The thinner the sidewall get, the stiffer they are, depends on the stretch, too. Anyway the smaller you go, the smaller the tolerance for it to loose traction in a sideways motion aka drifting. Higher sidewalls are more forgiving in turns. The demands depend on the axis and suspension work too. On the front, where you have lot's of turning motion, you want different sidewall behavior for handling, also depending on the suspension work.

These huge soft drag tires are engineered to act like a little spring that provides enough torsion so the mechanical grip can build up, until the forward motion set's in. It also protects the drive shaft from snapping because these tires and with the weight distribution have high mechanical grip already.



Add: There are other techniques like pulling the clutch, but some material will have to suffer, clutch, shaft, tires, suspension, engine internals. Pumping the clutch once while launching and then easing out so there's not that much tire slip but enough to enable AWD system. Then we talk about 2.8-3.0 seconds 0-61mph (100kmh) but the 60mph we passed short before 2nd. so the 60-120mph time is a bit slower because second ends about two third into the range.

Then the gears come closer together because the gearbox is actually for circuit racing and time attack built. So relative to 1st and 2nd, the other gears are shorter except 6th. Above 1st there's always enough boost available with a small decent clutch kick so it just keeps on raging if you are above 2nd. It's boost by gear. Means I decide the fuel map and boost settings etc for each gear. First two gears are restricted, only in third, when aerodynamics take over (on video the car visibly lowers as it accelerates on the bumper cam) there's full boost/hate available.

a reply to: Mantiss2021
Oh my, I think this thing had enough assistance systems on bord that could pull it off on a straight drag strip with white lines it can detect.

Then the owners will send their cars with the press of a button.

a reply to: ThatDamnDuckAgain

"What it means in simple terms is that I value the contest and I honor the rules of the game."

And nothing else matters.

a reply to: ThatDamnDuckAgain

Reading all of this makes me want to race again. Wish it wasn't so expensive. I really don't care to go back to street racing.

a reply to: AutomateThis1v2
check out what Lumenari called tuner porn in my thread history, short story forum "taming the devil", some translational errors and typos though

It was during a time when the browser typo correction was only set to my language

a reply to: ThatDamnDuckAgain

I don't mean this the wrong way and it's probably a lot harder than it seems but drag racing or going round in circles never was my idea of driving skills.

I'd rather think rally or formula offroad asks more of driver skill instead of engine performance.

a reply to: keukendeur
It's okay I get what you mean, I have similar opinion about it. I highly respect Rally, even more than formula one. Formula one is still one of the top leagues. I did 4 hours VLN endurance races on the Nürburgring before. In a stick shift RWD, no ABS, no ESP, no electronic juju. Lookup the track.. Hill climb races in "outlaw" class, too. The car described in this thread wasn't original built for drag, either. Built for that circuit.

It's not just engine performance, it's weight balance, suspension and it's setup, tires sizes, rims, you get the idea. Just it's too dangerous, hill climb was dangerous enough, Nürburgring is the most demanding circuit on the world if you # up there it's similar to rally, you're in big trouble.Even more in a big field of cars.

It's killing material and mentality because it's a 20km+ long test track for cars, built as a race track, built to provoke every angle of limit on the car. TV pictures do not do justice, you have to stand on the track to understand that this isn't a normal race track.

Every car manufacture on this planet that seriously does business, comes here and does tests on this track. It's the pinacle of challenge to both driver and material. That's why I stopped it all, track to busy, to costly, no time, too dangerous.

Drag was just the last one I kept doing because it's relative secure compared to the others.

a reply to: ThatDamnDuckAgain

I have this friend who has been pumping money into his 1995 Opel Astra station since it rolled from the factory. I once went with him to the Nürburgring for the Opel fan days. Lots of fun!!!

That thing had to drive 5min to warm up the oil but would overtake any RS on the autobahn.

Insane but sooooo much fun!!

Yeah...so...I got a really angry friend now because I described his car the way I did. It should be: Opel Astra F Caravan Irmscher...

Always kept going on about that "Nordschleife"

a reply to: keukendeur

I have this friend who has been pumping money into his 1995 Opel Astra station since it rolled from the factory. I once went with him to the Nürburgring for the Opel fan days. Lots of fun!!!

Baby blue colored or the silver one? These are the two AstraF 1995ish station wagons I can remember that weren't just quick flybys :-P or or seen as video. I don't know about the Irmscher tuning details but I know the F Model from 1995, friend had the 2/3 door F with some mods (slalom). Smaller steering wheel, some suspensions mods, stance and trusses on the domes, open air filter and sure some more thing's I did not see or forgot about. No power steering of course. He had those special rims, I don't know what exactly was so special but I think it was some Opel DTM stuff. They had huge offset, 5 arm but flat arms with sharp angles.

On what side of the road did he take the Fuchsröhre on the deepest point and did he brake? Did he take the outer or inner side? You remember?

That thing had to drive 5min to warm up the oil but would overtake any RS on the autobahn.

For me in the R33 one round was for warming up the car and checking out the track conditions. That's roughly 20km depends on how you measure. Then all fluids (engine, transmission, diffs, coolant, oil in the shocks on cold days) and all mechanic parts (engine, transmission, diffs, suspension at whole). short before the end I would go full boost and see how much traction I get. If I didn't hunt the tires a bit over the track, they won't even warm up completely.

Then I get off the track to the parking lot at devils diner, readjust the tire pressure, do some adjustments to the ECU, I had different profiles, to eliminate almost* all wheel spin on full trottle, in a certain gear. Had a button I could press any time to override that restriction and go all bonkers on overtaking maneuvers.

*almost.. I needed some wheel spin on the rear so the AWD activates and power is sent to the front. I am talking AWD wheel spin With the button pressed or the complete profile / all in on the engine activated in general. Uphill power drifts on, for example 295/18"/35 on the rear, were just a matter of mood

Always kept going on about that "Nordschleife"

It has several names, the ring is both GP+Nordschleife in common context and the real fun, dangerous and longest part is the Nordschleife itself. I only did some track days in the end, not even pushing to the limit or anything but there are more professional drivers and the flow is often better.

It's a paradise if the overall weather is good. You know there are local weather zones on the track on many days? You could have fog, rain/clouds, sunshine complete dry sections all in one round.

a reply to: ThatDamnDuckAgain

Oh boy...now you are asking me questions I could never answer.

I'm more of a Mitch Hedberg racing enthousiast..



My father was always switching between Mercedes and BMW for his company car and at one point he went from a Merc something 63 to an BMW M6. On the autobahn you would swear that at 250 km/h you be cruising within city limits.

That Opel my friend has went 280 (km/h, sorry Americans) but boy....that felt like your soul was leaving your body. Everything was shaking and you would swear the whole thing would come apart instantly....talk about an adrenaline rush!!! Seemed like it required at lot more driving skill to keep that baby on the road.

It was a blue one by the way..

a reply to: keukendeur
Yeah they dampen everything away. New aftermarket suspensions (I used KW) are very good though when settings are done correct. 350+ GPS measured was my max at night on a complete empty, unrestricted strip of the autobahn, just for a few seconds.

Tires... and needed to catch the next exit but mainly tires


Yeah I have met two guys in what would fit your version, when I say flyby then I mean I didn't have contact off track. Ask him that, if he ever had a woman ask for the color name of his car. If so, ask him where that was. It was three or four years ago. Then I say the name of the color :-P

It's a special color and I think it was done after the fact.

a reply to: ThatDamnDuckAgain

I'll ask him when I see him but I got a picture of the car if that will help narrow it down...lol



He's a born and raised Düsseldorfer (ironically born in a plane over Koln).