The JACK AUSTIN Project.

Hey guys,

Latest update. We rented Chandler Motorsports Park today. Krisse, Todd & Gail Lawyer, along with Kevin and Von were there working on her dragster. Mark, Deidre and myself were working on Jack's Mustang. Did I mention that it was hot and muggy?

Anyway, we scaled Jack's Mustang there in the staging lanes where it was flat, we changed pre-load and did several other adjustments. Scaled the car again, made test passes, did the slo-mo camera thing, mounted a camera on the side of the car, chalked the wheelie bar wheels, walked the track, studied the tire patterns, downloaded the runs from the RacePak, checked all the valve springs, checked the lash and readjusted as necessary,,,,,did I mention it was hot and muggy?

Six hours of testing with only two cars there and we had a good days work that was profitable. Did I mention that it was hot & muggy?

Uncle Charlie

Charlie....are you bragging or complaining?

Charle, I was just wondering how the weather was.

c.evans wrote:The hired gun, Mark McDonald. Also, a mighty fine chassis man.



We're farmers down here, so that some grain augers in the background sticking out above the engine.

Charlie

Looks familiar for some reason. I believe that is to the west of Mike's shop if I'm not mistaken.

It was HOT & MUGGY!!!

swap you some humidity for this 116* dry heat we have here lol.

Randy of Roseville wrote:

Has it been concluded that previous converter stall wasn't actually caused by tire slippage and that lock-up isn't actually the same as it was. ..? As the car goes quicker in the 1/8 mile, the speed will get faster. Comparing 1/4 mile speeds should tell the whole story.

Conclusion? With the car remaining in the "test mode" I don't think any conclusion has been made to the car's performance. Also I don't believe the converter is at question. I'm only curious and in need of education about converters! I must make a correction, the percentage I posted originally was .04%. I believe it should have been .4%. Back to my inquiry, the et/speed ratio figures as speed increases something is becoming more efficient. I assume if the recorded trap speed is faster the engine speed must be higher as well, with all components being the same. You may have an interesting point Randy relative to "tire shake". Mark did mention and data gathered during the runs at Chandler indicated tire shake was present. How this will effect the converter, I don't know! I do know this, everyone involved has done and continues to do a great job with the Jack Austin project. The car's fast, very driveable (Mark makes it look easy), detailed and nice looking. I'm not trying to pick anything apart or "arm chair" the project, simply asking questions about data I've seen and wondering how it could become more efficient without buying a pick-up load of parts!

Dave.

LivermoreDave wrote:

Randy of Roseville wrote:

Has it been concluded that previous converter stall wasn't actually caused by tire slippage and that lock-up isn't actually the same as it was. ..? As the car goes quicker in the 1/8 mile, the speed will get faster. Comparing 1/4 mile speeds should tell the whole story.

Conclusion? With the car remaining in the "test mode" I don't think any conclusion has been made to the car's performance. Also I don't believe the converter is at question. I'm only curious and in need of education about converters! I must make a correction, the percentage I posted originally was .04%. I believe it should have been .4%. Back to my inquiry, the et/speed ratio figures as speed increases something is becoming more efficient. I assume if the recorded trap speed is faster the engine speed must be higher as well, with all components being the same. You may have an interesting point Randy relative to "tire shake". Mark did mention and data gathered during the runs at Chandler indicated tire shake was present. How this will effect the converter, I don't know! I do know this, everyone involved has done and continues to do a great job with the Jack Austin project. The car's fast, very driveable (Mark makes it look easy), detailed and nice looking. I'm not trying to pick anything apart or "arm chair" the project, simply asking questions about data I've seen and wondering how it could become more efficient without buying a pick-up load of parts!

Dave.

I'm simply curious about the data and what it shows. In the 1/8 mile most vehicles are still somewhat accelerating at a much higher rate than at the end of a 1/4 mile.
Yes ... the higher the engine RPM when the stator is free-wheeling the converter slippage becomes minutely less; (unless it's ballooning).

Thanks to the summer heat & the greater chance of being on a greasy track, cars with decent power running into some amount of tire shake in the heat is just part of the deal. But a slight little "quiver" can sometimes be a good sign that a car is right on the edge & on a heck of a pass.

Full-on bad ass "eye-ball shaking" tire shake can adversely effect so many different things on a race car. I wonder what aerating or shearing effect it might have on say something like the fluid inside a converter, or the engine oil in the pan or dry sump tank.