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At the races.


maddmaxx

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6 hours ago, Airehead said:

How do you know the run order?

Prior to the start of the actual eliminations everyone draws a poker chip from a bag.  The chips come in two colors that designate which lane you will get and they have a number that designates what pair you will run in during the first round.  In the second and following rounds the lowest numbers remaining are paired together and the fastest car from the previous round gets lane choice.

At some major races, the choices are made during qualifying sessions based on elapsed time.  Those races will have a limited number of qualifiers such as 16 or 32 and they run fastest vs slowest during first round just like 1/1 drag racing.  They are usually multi day races however because qualifying takes lots of time.

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5 hours ago, BR46 said:

Working on a small scale with the RC cars how much does aerodynamics come into play? 

Aero always matters in RC because the cars are so light in relation to the potential speed.  In drag racing it's especially important because the speeds are high and the cars are on the edge of traction.  Two things are especially important to us, directional stability and keeping air out from under the body.  The street eliminator/outlaw class is the faster and they run large rear wings with large vertical fins for stability.  They also tend to remove most of the body below the wing to let any trapped air out.  The superstocks cannot remove any of the stock appearing body and are limited as to the wing, but they are slower, in the 40mph range vs 60 to 70.  I witnessed one "blowover" Sunday where the nose of the car rotated up near the finish line and the car took off like an airplane, getting about 4 feet off the ground while doing a complete backflip.  We run the nose of the car as close to the ground as possible to keep air out.  Aero is why in the lineup you see so many of the Corvette pro mod bodies.  There is no back at all on that one under the wing and they form an efficient "wedge" shape to manage the air.

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3 hours ago, maddmaxx said:

Aero always matters in RC because the cars are so light in relation to the potential speed.  In drag racing it's especially important because the speeds are high and the cars are on the edge of traction.  Two things are especially important to us, directional stability and keeping air out from under the body.  The street eliminator/outlaw class is the faster and they run large rear wings with large vertical fins for stability.  They also tend to remove most of the body below the wing to let any trapped air out.  The superstocks cannot remove any of the stock appearing body and are limited as to the wing, but they are slower, in the 40mph range vs 60 to 70.  I witnessed one "blowover" Sunday where the nose of the car rotated up near the finish line and the car took off like an airplane, getting about 4 feet off the ground while doing a complete backflip.  We run the nose of the car as close to the ground as possible to keep air out.  Aero is why in the lineup you see so many of the Corvette pro mod bodies.  There is no back at all on that one under the wing and they form an efficient "wedge" shape to manage the air.

Just like in real life 

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1 hour ago, BR46 said:

Just like in real life 

Yep.  I just finished pulling the data from Sunday's runs.  I was making 1.25 hp just off the line and 28,000 rpm at the finish.  I had the good battery onboard and I was drawing 125 amps.  That's 25% better than my best test runs prior to Sunday.  All morning I was the fastest super stock car there.  Then came first round and a driver error.  I didn't get the tires clean enough because I thought I was having troubles from too much traction and I had drawn a slow car.  

Yep, pride goeth before the fall.  I lost traction, did 2 full tankslappers down the track and watched the slow car go in a straight line out in front of me.

At this point, my superstock 13.5 car is a beast.  I'm retiring the promod and turning it into a spare parts car so I can concentrate on one car and learn how to adjust it for all conditions.

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I have been picking the brains of these two yahoos. Dave the one standing is the cylinder head master mind and Dennis the guy on the bike is the aerodynamics guy. Between these minds they have 4 land speed records. 

20210504_091259.jpg.48ea57ae97317aedc6591957a8f52262.jpg

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