Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
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ECOTech Chevy / Ford Focus Midgets at the Tulsa Shootout

Gary Taylor

Bryan Clauson

Kevin Bayer - Winner

Kevin Ramey and Tyler Thomas

Scott Sawyer in traffic.

How many were there of each? Eco-tech and Ford focus. Which seemed to perform the best on the track? Lap times compared to the non-winged 600's? Overall evaluation?

I wonder how good the 99 car ran with the stacks and filters laying down in the nerf bar....

Loose is when you hit the wall with the rear of the
car, tight is when you hit the wall with the front of
the car. Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall and
torque is how far you move the wall.

Great observation! It would probably run good until it sucked a dirt clog.

There were 13 of the Eco-techs and 2 of the Ford Focus. Eco-techs seemed faster than the Focus but slower than the non winged 600s. My evaluation is that on a small track they would be great but boring on a big track. Heard that the Smiley 84 car that was driven by Gary Taylor also has an Esslinger for the Chili Bowl

Thanks Sprint50.

The dislodged stacks and filters? Saw that but figured the proverbial "Don't own it, don't care" rule applies.

Are these ECOtechs the second coming? I'm confused......I thought the Ford Focus deal was supposed to be.

There was an article in SC&M magazine about the Ecotech midgets.

As I recall the guy behind the Focus program, USAC & Ford had a falling out.

He went with a new program and ASCS appears to be involved.

Ecotech has more power if comparing stock Focus midget motor to stock Ecotech motor but there was talk of a coversion package to make the Forcus engine competitive.

The Focus is a little light on power but a great training ground. I've never owned a competitive minisprint but it appears there are a kajillion of them around despite what can be fairly pricey motors, etc. The Focus/Ecotech motors are sealed and you don't mess with them... which has a little initial cost but in the long run is supposed to keep the playing ground level and economical. If you can't change internals... that HAS to help the cost.

As far as winged 600s being faster than a roughly 200hp non-winged midget... I would imagine so. Winged minis aren't slow!

Read the same article. If I remember right...around 250hp? What concerns me is the tampering with the ECU (Computer/management system for the fuel system and ignition). Those can be altered rather easily for a nominal fee. That changes the characteristics of the motor performance. It has been done with similar systems being used in the 600 micros and 1200 minis. The gooks have been "adjusting" the ECU units of their bike motors for the past view years only with very little mechanical modifications and gained quite a bit of performance so has been proven it can have a profound effect.

Band wagon time.......There's a 1200 class out there with the same sized car and wheels but runs a $1,500-$2,000 stock bike motor (1000cc @ 188hp. Total car weight around 690#) that is competitive with the current full midgets on small 3/8ths mile and smaller tracks. The class runs winged and non-winged. The bad thing....It incorporates the "sacreligious chain drive" rather than a drive shaft. OMG! No doubt faster than this new car/ford focus at a fraction of the cost. Isn't that what this is supposed to be about?

I attended some races last year at which there were about 20 NEMA Midgets and 20 NEMA Lites. The midgets use the common, expensive midget engines. The Lites are the remainder of the Eastern Ford Focus group. They run a number of engines, but are mostly Focus and Pontiac 4s. They run separate events. The Lites are only slightly slower than the full midgets, and it's not particularly noticeable from the stands, if they don't run right after each other. I don't have the times handy, but the Lites are running times that the full midgets were running a few years ago. BTW, both series run wings.

Those Pontiac engines come from a group that runs Whip City Speedway. They way they handle the possibility of owners fooling with the electronics is simple. When you go home, you leave the computer with the officials. When you get there next week, you get any one of the computers out of the box.

Thanks for the Photos Jim. Happy New Year to All!

I suggested on IOW letting 1000cc mini sprints (non-wing,) run with the focus cars and Ecotech cars and got the typical OMG!!!! No drive shaft!!! response.

Would help the Focus series in Indiana with car counts, seeing as they're only getting 6-8 cars a race.