Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

I've known about sprints for years but had my first live experience this summer in Pennsylvania... awesome! What I'm curious about, considering the crazy acceleration of these cars, is this: Has anyone ever raced a sprint on a quarter mile drag strip? How fast & quick ? Thanks

The WoO ran on the strip (kinda) at Heartland Park in Topeka several years ago ... I know that's not what you were asking ... think it would be hard to run a traditional sprinter on a strip since they need to be push started -- by the time they fired and got up to speed the run would be most over... Maybe someone with a street legal ran it on a strip once - dunno fer sure?

Phil Taylor

home-theater-systems-advice.com

Member of this message board since 1997

The rolling start aspect of it makes it a different apple in my book.

Drag boats like I worked on use a rolling start as well so it isn't completely bizarre... but it isn't comparing apples to apples to me.

I recall Ron Shaver talking about what a current (at that time) sprint car motor would do in a top fuel rail car... it was impressive.

"Wesmar" would be the best source for this topic to me with his family background in dragsters.

Our drag boat motor was 2,500 hp big block blown Chevy. What a 900 hp small block would do... probably nice but how could it blow your mind when considering how much bigger & the hp current top-level NHRA motors make?

If sprint car motors were the answer... Schumacher & company would be running them. That wasn't really the point of the post... but I say the numbers wouldn't blow your mind.

According to the e.t. calculator found at http://www.race-cars.net/calculators/et_calculator.html you're looking at 6.66 @ 204 mph with just the basic numbers: 1350 lb car and 900 h.p. motor.

Tx...been missin' you over at the "other" place!

leon

TSA...It's not a GROPE...it's a Freedom Pat!

COPIED OFF ASCS SITE A FEW YEARS BACK...

Clock This ? An off duty police officer put his radar gun to good use (as opposed to its typically evil application) at Dodge City Raceway Park Saturday night. Top speeder in hot laps was ticketed at 112 m.p.h. down the backstretch. The fastest lap in competition came during the final lap of the ?A? Main, when Danny Jennings and Gary Wright charged in wheel-to-wheel fashion down the backstretch at 109 m.p.h.

Meanwhile, killing time at Houston Raceway Park on Saturday afternoon, Greg Rilat and company decided to take their Sprint Car for a quick run down the drag strip. Motor Mike mounted a right rear tire on the left side, popped in a 575 gear, and Rilat stopped the clocks in 9.33 seconds at 126 m.p.h. A final run was believed to be within the eight-second range, but that will remain forever unknown due to a timing light malfunction.

Rilat went on to finish third that night in the Gulf South Region feature behind Kulhanek and Jerry Bell atop HRP?s 3/8-mile, high-banked clay oval.

That would be a pretty fair comparison to a Pro-Stock, right?

Street legal sprint car on a drag strip. Gets a little squirrely off the line though. Announcer has a couple comments. Turn up the volume.

http://www.dragzine.com/news/video-so-cal-sprint-car-hits-the-quarter-mile-drag-strip/

Adding $6 trillion of debt in his 1st term and now if 
elected again he wouldn't have to worry about an 
electorate in 2016 so the sky is the limit.And his EPA 
would continue to put the screws to oil drilling and 
mining for coal.Can you say bankruptcy.

Member of this message board since 1997

Greg Rilet ran his at Houston Raceway Park a few years back.They di it from a rolling start.They put 2 left rears on it I believe.

I really meant to compare the ET and speed that was calculated. 6.66 and 204 is about what Prostocks are turning now. I'm not a big straight line fan but I do keep up a little with Mike Edwards from here in the Tulsa area. He was doing test and tune last year at our clubs Pontiac Nationals, turning in the 6's

2,500 manhours? That's a little over one years work for one person. At a machinist wages, that's got to be at least 40-50 thousand dollars. Wow!

The Last Time The WoO raced at Bristol, a couple of the Sprinters Ran Over at The Dragstrip, PJ Chesson is the only one I can remember (they did have a running start) SORRY I can't remember any numbers...

Thanks for the input, guys. Someone said, "Our drag boat motor was 2,500 hp big block blown Chevy. What a 900 hp small block would do" Of course, I'm not comparing a sprint car to modern dragsters, I was thinking more of the "good ole days" (I just turned 60) when guys would drag homebuilt hot rods instead of the modern high tech rocket sleds (Which I have NO interest in). I was guessing maybe 180 mph & 7 or 8 sec. e.t.s.

So how about some more questions from a newcomer? running start: I realize sprints have an "in/out box" instead of a tranny, but does that also mean no clutch?

Now the big one: I'm confused about qualifying, heats & how they determine starting lineup positions. Do local tracks & WoO all have different rules? Someone straighten me out...

I'm seriously tempted to push my credit card & head to Williams Grove (from Denver, no sprints) for Oct 1&2 races, but my Pennsylvania girlfriend will want me to go dancing instead, which I love, but??????

Jeff24: Thanks for the video... a "little" squirrely? Thats why dragsters went to long wheel bases 40 yrs. ago. Too bad they didn't finish the race in the video& announce the times.

Thanks again to everyone for responses

1350 pounds and 900 HP, and use a turbo 400 tranny or a six speed cuz a rolling start wouldn't tell you anything, anywho you'll see around 7.70 at 155 to 160mph, IMHO. PS with that short wheelbase, could get a little tricky. I've seen more than one altered/ Anglia/Willys gasser with those short wheelbases and 1,000+ HP get out of shape at top end. AA/FA, them were the great days of drag racing. Wild wild cars. Also, the early Funny Cars, that didn't have a name, but were named by some sports writer in Seattle after seeing Dyno Don Christenson and Dickie Harrel doing match racing?? odd looking chassis and saying, "those are some funny looking cars". Now we have a class for them----sadly with rules.

Lawlessness + liberalism = HELL -  NYC, Detroit, Chicago, 
Seattle, LA  Who the H runs those cities. 

Yea, those old time gassers & altereds were wild, remind me a lot of sprints. Funny cars were originally called "factory experimental", more like hotrodded superstocks than today's pure race designed funnies.

I had the pleasure of attending the L.A Roadster show (actually National) last winter, & they had a whole building devoted to vintage race cars, dragsters, Bonneville racers, old California track racers... excellent. Lots of the owners & builders were there & were very willing to BS about their masterpieces.

revjimk: to answer your questions about sprinters, don't actually use and in/out box anymore, there's just a sliding coupler between the front half and back half of the lower shaft in the quick change rearend. I connects the two halves and engages/disengages by operating a cable that is attached to a lever on the right side of the cockpit. There is no clutch. To stop you simply match the engine rpm to the ground speed and pull the lever to get it out of gear, then hit the brakes. Race line ups are a whole 'nuther story. Sometimes they draw for heat race starting positions, sometimes time trials determine the start position. With the draw system you may, or may not, get passing points for each car you pass in the heat race. Then they'll take the top so many cars in points to the feature. In that system a car that starts eighth and finishes 5th has more points than a car that started 4th and finishes 4th. Time trial heats can be started straight up but are usually inverted somehow. Fastest car might start 4th or 6th in the first heat, 2nd fast starts 4th or 6th in the second heat and so on. Feature lineups can have some sort of invert so it gets really confusing trying to figure out how this guy starts behind a guy he beat in the heat race. WoO and local races are usually different and local tracks differ from each other. Stop down to the pits after the race and look the cars over. Find one of the drivers or mechanics that aren't busy, tell them you don't know anything and ask for an explanation tour of the car. You'll hear lots of words you don't understand, tell them to go slowly and you might get lucky and find one who'll take the time to walk you through it. The cars are very simple and basic. Have fun! And come back if you have more questions.

revjimk, just like doublenuthin said, PLEASE go to another sprint car race, and PLEASE come in to the pits afterwards, find someone who looks like they might know something, (if you can't find someone, just ask a driver. If they don't know anything themselves, they'll point to the guy who does), and ask all the questions you want. I think that you'll find that most guys are more than happy to let you get up close and personal with the car, go over it with a fine toothed comb... hell, some guys will let you waltz through the hauler and just kind of look around and see what's what.

Personally, I love it when people who've never seen a sprint car up close come into our pit, marvel at the car, and have a million questions, even if I can't really answer them. I always hope that I planted a little seed that will make them want to come back again.