Leading race engine manufacturer Engine Developments, of Rugby, Warwickshire, commissioned a new dynamometer data acquisition system earlier this year. The system incorporates the latest hardware and software technology in order to improve the dynamometer data acquisition capability to the benefit of the company internally and to its customers. The company, which manufactures Judd racing engines, has three dynamometer cells, all of which contain a Froude G490 water brake dynamometer. The...
The conventional H-gate manual shift gearbox, a universal feature on all race cars until about 20 years ago, is actually a highly counter intuitive control device... Consider the conventional passenger or race car control system: First, we have the right hand ‘throttle’ pedal – if you press with your foot you go faster, release your foot and you slow down – logical enough. The second pedal, well, if you want to slow down a lot faster, or in an emergency, press this,...
In our July RET-Monitor, we looked at Terry Manton’s projected use of a copper-hybrid pushrod adjuster tip to aid NHRA Pro Stock runners in the Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. Manton Pushrods, of Lake Elsinore, California tested the initial product with Warren and Kurt Johnson, and then took the new pushrod unit to Joliet to see if anyone else was interested. The upshot? Fourteen Pro Stock drivers – some fulltime, others who run the category on a part-time basis – are...
Nitromethane-fed engines have different ways of destroying their valve springs. There are challenges, as there are in every type of motor racing, to help valve springs survive the sub-four-second damage realities these springs face. Jim Oberhofer, responsible for the Top Fuel Kalitta Motorsports rail run by Doug Kalitta on the NHRA Full Throttle Racing Series' 24-race tour, explains what the challenges are for a nitro motor. “We don't have high lift camshafts and high engine...
Following on from Anne Proffit's recent article on the application of hollow valves in drag-racing, we look at some of the more general benefits of hollow valves and their use in racing. These valves are used in all sorts of racing engines (and have also been used in production engines in the past). Particularly in Formula One they are used extensively. Whilst hollow valves would offer a weight saving over their solid equivalent (given the same stem diameter), they would be less stiff...