Pro Mod and Pro Stock drag racing classes still see manual transmissions used in competition, and they range from two-speed units on short, eighth-of-a-mile courses to five speeds on quarter-miles. In Pro Mod the use of manuals is optional; in Pro Stock they are mandatory. Given these cars’ prodigious power outputs, the transmissions they use are rather different from those found in other, less potent race machinery. One of the most popular set-ups is a transmission using a planetary...
Valvetrains are often the key to improving engine performance. Given a free hand, most engine development engineers will strive for ever higher engine speeds as a route to increased power output, if friction can be prevented from overcoming the extra power released by the increase in speed. Before the FIA reined in the Formula One engine suppliers, the engine speeds of the V8s were more than 20,000 rpm and heading for 21,000, which would have put the 2.4 litre engines into the territory...