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Holcombe Chassis status

AIM is a wonderful thing.

Brian: you'll be impressed when you see the frame in person as it sits now
Me: i am really looking forward to that.
Me: your progress has been one of the highlights of my summer.
Brian: cool
Brian: did i mention i have another hot item on the product list
Me: no. tell me.
Brian: its called the stocker "trunk system", nearly every fast stocker is using a fuel cell, battery box and weight box in the trunk of their cars, then they weld in tabs for mounting weight bars and pucks
Brian: this combines it all into one system that bolts in with 4 1/2" bolts
Me: all right, and you are working on this methodology as well?
Brian: i'm building a chrome moly round tube frame for it, and my own battery box, weight box, fuel cell and weight puck tabs for holding 5lb weights
Brian: i'm building it along with larrys project, i have the weight box finished
Me: good job.
Brian: i'll be back in a minute, gotta use the bathroom
Me: i assume that since there is a battery in this box, it serves as an active power source, and not as a spare?
Brian: active yeah, and alot of these guys put a fake battery in the front mounted battery slot. the real feature is the ability to quickly and easily change the overall weight of the car, and it puts it in the best spot for traction
Brian: brb in a minute
Brian: ok i'm back
Me: this thing you tell me about weight boxes, well, I never knew it. one of the ways you can tell that i'm a real drag racing idiot. LOL
Brian: in stock eliminator the many individual classes have minimum weights, so the objective of the owner is to take as much weight out of the front of the car as possible, and remove as much rotating weight as possible, and put all the weight required to make the minimum into the trunk to help the car wheelie (traction)
Brian: there is good weight and bad weight, bad weight is rotating weight as it slows the car down significiantly more then static weight that sits in the trunk of the car
Me: right. but... if the car actually DOES "wheelie," doesn't that have a negative impact on traction?
Brian: yeah, the wheelie is what creates maximum traction under most every bad conditions
Brian: even* bad conditions, meaning hot summer tracks or worn out track surfaces
Me: that seems counter-intuitive. when you use the term "wheelie," you use the "traditional" meaning of "front wheels off the track?"
Brian: yeah
Brian: only for the first 60ft or so
Brian: so the car can build enough wheel speed to maintain traction as the car is settling down from the wheelie and weight is transfering back to the front tires on the ground
Me: OK, so you are depending on the rear wheels during the most critical acceleration phase.
Brian: oh yeah, the rear wheels require the total weight of the car in most cases to be on them entirely to maintain traction on the start and first 60ft
Me: that is very interesting. I'd need to take that into account in a loads analysis. up to this point i was assuming static loads -- the whole car is as if standing still.
Brian: so, the events are as fallows, the car will initially shock the tires on the starting line by the driver letting off of the brakes and flooring the accellerator, the tires will initial grab the track surface and start to "pitch rotate" the car which means wheelie the car onto the rear wheels to increase the total weight on them and maintain traction while the car accellerates
Brian: yes, as the weight of the car drops back down to the ground, the nose weight will increase on the contract as the nose of the car droops, then it will go back to static or less then static as the nose rises again and the car travels forward
Brian: lots of dynamics into making these cars work very well, maintaining traction under all conditions and using the power effectively
Me: man, you know yer shit.
Brian: thanks!

Labels: young entrepreneurs

posted by Ron @ 6:57 PM