Thanks! Oh man, I get that all the time,

When it was originally conceived for the SEMA show some 6 years ago, the designer was going for a 'domestic sport-compact' thang, kind of playing off the Asian cars which can be so...well, hideous too! It's a bit dated now, and since we incurred a bit of body damage this year when the right front control arm failed at 130 MPH (yes, Adam wrestled it to the curb without crashin!), it may be up for a respray in solid red next. At least we took the wing off...(here's an old photo of the car from 2002, )

 

good god man

 

 

Nice Autozone wing!

 

Hey, it was state-of-the-art in 2002

 

1902 maybe lol.
and damnit bill stop making want to drop more money into this damn car

 

wow that's awsome, i can't wait to see how far you get with the cobalt ss/tc zomg 606whp in the sunfire........can't wait to see how much more u can get from the cobalt

 

wow very nice

 

so this thing still has stock rear suspension?

 

Stock except for Eibach lowering springs...and $3.99 spring spacers to stiffen them up and stop rear end sag during launch.

 

stock except....lol

 

awesome. you should try to convince him to try to get staioned at littlerock. haha. he will enjoy it, i love the military i just dislike being a jet engine mechanic. that where retraining comes in though.

 

God, I remember when you first posted pictures on JBO of that thing. It was freakin' ugly then!

But the performance at the time was better than anything anyone had ever accomplished in a street car...

 

Heh, well...the overall intention is to indicate that it is still stock trailing arm/twist beam rear suspension, as compared to non-stock alternatives such as coilovers, control arms, straight axles...just to name a few ways cars of this type will deviate from the stock suspension to save weight and add $$$.

Fact is, with just lowering springs, it's more 'stock' than many street cars in this regard!

 

yeah I would have been amazed if you turned a 10.58 with no mods to the rear.

 

Well, believe it or not...had we left the stock springs on the rear, we'd likely be doing just fine, as they are better suited to controlling squat than the Eibachs. We may put them back on for this very purpose!

 

Click!

 

I'm willing to bet with a softer rear end you'll run at least one tenth less than befor.... but we've got a long time to figure that out. suspension plays a bigger role in drag racing than most people think.

 

Quite so! We've been very busy just getting the engine systems to play well with each other, and admittedly, we've spent little time on the finer points of chassis development. The car is solid and safe, with a full chrome-moly roll cage, so it's a great starting point. We developed our own lower control arms using components from existing RWD drag technology. It goes straight now, with no drama...so more power could be used

One of the next areas of concern would be employing struts and shocks more geared for this kind of use...the stock pieces on the car currently have performed well, but there's room for improvement.

We also need to get some power out of 1st gear, and a larger wastegate may be the best way to tame that big turbo for this...we can't control the boost pressure low enough in 1st.

And a point of contention...wheelie bars to help it 'plant and launch' better. Since it's a car basically for our own enjoyment, and not designed to run any particular racing class, we could play this card...but wheelie bars are typically associated only with pure-race drag FWD's, and our street cred takes a hit if we use them. Plus, should we ever decide to take them off later to actually race at an event, the car's setup will be all wrong.

 

wow! amazing Bill!
I'll drop of my LSJ at your place if I can pick it up as a 10 sec car

 

Great times bill for sure!!!!!

Waiting for your ss/tc parts you have been working on to be available.

My question I have to ask is why it takes 606 wheel hp to go 139mph in a 2400 lb car when this car goes the same mph at 538 wheel hp and goes a heck of alot more on the scales, like 3200+, as per the pics, the stock center console with radio and hvac knobs is still intact. I know et is representative of traction, but mph is for the most part strictly HP.

http://www.rapidmotorsports.com/Hot_Rod.jpg

Just a thought?

 

Traction also plays a big factor in MPH.. look at Ralliartist.. he lost something like 2mphs when he went to slicks and had traction on the line, but dropped a couple tenths in the end..

a 1.7 sec 60 ft, while quite impressive, could still be a lot better especially with there power levels, traction is still an issue thus increasing MPH..

 

Why did you destroke it from a 2.2 to 2.0?

 

High powered FWD cars can be a bit deceptive in this area, as their MPH can be affected by a host of factors including 60 foot, efficiency of shifting (time spent with throttle closed), and general ET effectiveness (whcih this car is really just starting to achieve). As a further point, the RPM it's seeing at the finish line in 4th gear is well short of the RPM at which the max of 606 WHP was realized on the dyno.

For comparison purposes, the car with driver weight is 2670 lbs, so for a 139 MPH pass, that calculates to roughly 562 WHP at the finish line...less than 8% off the 606 dyno mark taken at higher RPM. So, when all factors are considered, it begins to make sense! Ryze makes some good points too.

Ideally, we'd have gear ratio selections that would allow us to overcome this RPM-at-the-finish-line limitation. Alas, no such luck...about all we can do is pour more power into it to force it to higher RPM at the finish line!

This is a common formula applied by GM Racing (as well as GM's OEM forced induction engines). A shorter stroke pays dividends at high power by stiffening the crankshaft (as compared to a longer stroke crank) and also reducing centrigifugal stresses at high RPM. We are essentially exchanging engine displacement for more power via more cycles per minute @ higher RPM. It's a worthy tradeoff for power and durability.

If you want to see this concept pushed to its highest, check out Formula One engines that buzz 18,000 - 19,000 RPM. They have almost no stroke at all!

 

Congrats on the car and great passes! Also, tell your son welcome to the Air Force!