Hi,

I’m the guy with the 11:1 CR turbo Datsun engine runnin on methanol. I
have a friend with a machine/engine shop so I thought I’d get it dynoed
before putting it in the car. Well, during the warm-up stage and using a
little bit of boost a couple of times (4.5 psi for now), a hole went
down. We check the plugs and a couple looked a bit funny so we did a
leakdown. As we turned the engine over, water came squirting out of one
of the holes. We removed the head and the fire ring had deformed in
several places and found water. Not too big a deal as we felt o-ringing
would solve it.

Well, we borrowed an o-ringing tool (the Isky one) and proceeded to
groove.To make a long story short, we ended up cutting one of the grooves
36 thou deep where the instructions call for 30 thou (and I’ve read
elsewhere 30-34 thou) with the 40 thou copper wire. What should we do?

We thought about cutting it even deeper and placing two wires in the
groove with the top wire about 15-20 thou above the deck (the instructions
call for 10-15). What about using a stainless steel 40 thou wire on the
one hole? The others are fine with a 15 thou protrusion.

A quick response would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Matt Beaubien
mbeau…@gpu.srv.ualberta.ca

Hi All;

     Does anyone have any idea how to properly adjust the damping
characteristics of SPAX shock absorbers? They have an adjustment
knob on the bottom, but there does not seem to be any way to know
where you are, or how many clicks of the adjuster changes what.
This adjuster knob just seems to spin forever with no start/end.

 HELP!!!

Thanks;

Eric Gutknecht
Ottawa, CANADA
er…@corel.ca

d.jen…@geel.dwt.csiro.au (Dennis Jensen) writes:
}
}       …               And dragsters get to over 500km/h! Sure, the wings
}increase drag, but as you have so neatly pointed out, this hardly matters with
}drag racing, as there is an excess of power anyway.
I wrote:

|
|I am not so sure about this last point.  There is always a tradeoff between
|downforce and drag, because of the turbulence associated with the way the
|wing works.  (A blown engine offers a perfect way to see this on track,
|without a wind tunnel.)  The fact that top fuel cars and funny cars are
|within a few mph at top end despite very different E/T says to me that
|there is some tradeoff between ‘clean’ and downforce …  

When I wrote that, I was working on intuition rather than analysis.  Soon
after I sent it, I wondered what analysis would show and worked out some
cases this weekend — and I figured it might be interesting to physics
readers (even might make a good homework problem) as well as showing
the tech crowd what led me to that conclusion in the first place.

The problem is made simpler because of an accidental coincidence in the
data: there was a 4.665 second 308.74 mph run in top fuel and a 4.943
second 308.75 mph run in funny car recently.  Thus we can analyze the
two with a common distance (1320 ft) and final speed (452.83 ft/s)
with just the elapsed time as a variable between the two car types.

It is immediately obvious that the data are inconsistent with a constant
acceleration.  We have enough data to determine two parameters, so at
best we can experiment with different functional forms for a(t).   I
tried three: linear, an exponential shape that gets steeper with t,
and an exponential shape that drops (or rises) and then levels off.  
The time constant for the exponential was chosen for convenience and
was quite different in those two cases.  One would need more data to
study the shape.

All three solutions for both kinds of cars were similar, falling from
a very high rate of acceleration at the start to moderate levels at the
finish.  It was consistently the case that the top fuel dragster had
a larger launch acceleration while the funny car was accelerating more
at the finish.  Early is good for E/T, late is good for top speed.  I
conclude that the dragster needs the wing to provide the traction to
overcome the drag from its very inefficient shape while a funny car
benefits from its streamlined shape.

                        T/F dragster              funny car
acceleration at      start       finish         start    finish
                     —–       ——         —–    ——
linear                5.3         0.8            4.4      1.3
exp falloff           5.1         0.5            4.2      1.1
exp drop              5.9         1.2            4.8      1.6

                      These numbers are in Gees, rounded off.

There was one other datum: a guy ran a 5.03 at 195 in a funny car after
shutting down early.  Inspection of my graphs say this makes sense with
any of the above models, since the car is going almost 250 mph when halfway
down the track.  Rapid deceleration in the last second does not affect
the elapsed time much.

By the way, it is not just guys driving those cars.  Shelly Anderson had
a 4.66 at 312 mph recently.  

–
 James A. Carr   <j…@scri.fsu.edu>     |  Olympics report: whitewater slalom
    http://www.scri.fsu.edu/~jac/       |  and track&field were awesome in  
 Supercomputer Computations Res. Inst.  |  person.  Page with some of my  
 Florida State, Tallahassee FL 32306    |  kayak photos will be coming soon.

                       San Diego Stadium Auto Swap

The 75th Edition of the San Diego Stadium Auto Swap will be held on Sunday,
August 18 from 6am to 2pm at Jack Murphy Stadium.  Acres of Vehicles, Parts
and Accessories plus 1000′s of Buyers will be at this event.  These shows
are always open to ALL VEHICLES with dozens of trophies and cash prizes.  We
are highlighting Corvettes on August 18 so…all Parts Vendors and Corvette
entries will receive FREE refreshments at our Hospitality Tent.

For more information check out the Events Section of our home page located
at http://www.carsnet.com or e-mail rayc…@carsnet.com or Call us at (619)
484-9342.  We’ll see ya there!!!

      If You Want A Great Deal, You’ve Gotta Shop The AUTO SWAP!

Touring Car Mailing List Available
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Touring Car List is for all people with an interest in
DTM and 2 litre touring car racing.

Subscribing
~~~~~~~~~~~
Send a message to lists…@vollans.demon.co.uk containing the
message (NOT subject)

subscribe touringcar your_name

In a day or so you will get a welcome message.

or you can subscribe via the www

http://www.vollans.demon.co.uk/mailings.html

Stephen M Baines
Written: 19th April 1995
Modified: 12th August 1996

Please come visit http://www.all-pla.net/driwash

Posting-Frequency: every 7 days
Last-modified: 10th February 1995
Version: 1.1

Welcome to the rec.autos.sport hierarchy.  This is a set of newsgroups
dedicated to the discussion of motorsport.

This message will be posted every 7 days to rec.autos.sport.info,
rec.autos.sport.tech, rec.autos.sport.nascar, rec.autos.sport.f1,
rec.autos.sport.indy and rec.autos.sport.misc.  It has some guidelines
on posting to these newsgroups as well as instructions on how to obtain
the FAQ list of Frequently Asked Questions.

1.  NETTIQUETTE

A lot of people read these newsgroups – over 100,000 at the latest
estimate. Some readers are restricted to tortuously slow connections.
Some people pay for their connect time by the minute. Other people just
like to read news when the Net is running slowly. When you post, please
ask yourself questions like:

1.1 The Content of Your Post

  o Are you discussing `organised, legal auto competitions’ ?
    rec.autos.sport.* is _not_ for discussion of roadgoing `sports cars’.

  o Would it be better to post to rec.autos.sport.misc, rec.autos.sport.info,
    rec.autos.sport.tech or rec.autos.sport.nascar ? The charters for
    these newsgroups are listed in section 2.

  o Is a cross posted article is directly relevant to all of the groups
    where it will appear ?  It is usually wrong to cross post an article
    to both rec.autos.sport.misc and one of the other subgroups
    (eg r.a.s.tech or r.a.s.nascar).

  o It is perfectly legal to reproduce short extracts of a copyrighted
    work for critical purposes, but reproduction in whole is strictly and
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    unless given permission by the author.

1.2 The Style of Your Post

  o Would you want to read what you are writing ? Might it be better to
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    flames are particularly dull for the rest of the world, as are posts
    which follow fifty lines of quoted text with "I agreei".

  o On the Net, most people only know you by the words that you write.
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  o Trim down your quotes. Delete parts of the article that you are not
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  o Humour, and particularly sarcasm, is often misunderstood over the Net
    with hilarious consequences. A smily, , may be advisable.

1.3 Practicalities

  o Is the subject line both descriptive and accurate ?

  o People can select the articles which most appeal to them if you have
    a keyword in the subject field like F1, INDYCAR, NHRA, WRC, F3000,
    IMSA etc. I think ADMIN is good for any posts which discuss the
    day-to-day running of the group, splitting the group, or revising the
    charter.

  o Please try to keep the lines in the main text of your posts to fewer
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    becomes difficult to read with many news readers. 72 characters per
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  o If you are following up an article to create a new article, please
    remember to delete the References: line in the header. This will help
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    will be mixed in with an old one.

  o Please do not post large binary files like GIFs, JPEGs, MPEGs or WAVs
    to rec.autos.sport.*  They will fill the Usenet disk partitions at
    some sites. Some people cannot select which articles they want
    before they have to download them. It is much better to post them
    to one of the alt.binaries.* newsgroups with a short post to
    rec.autos.sport.* to notify anyone who is interested.

1.4 Spoilers

  o If you are going to post about a race before some people will have
    had the chance to watch it on television, say within 48 hours of the
    race, please put (spoiler) in the Subject: line and don’t give away
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  o If you have not yet seen the race, a day after it was on TV, and you
    really don’t want to know who won, please abstain from r.a.s for a
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  o If someone posts results without a spoiler warning, do not post a
    public flame. Mail a reasonably civil email note to that person
    requesting that they use (spoiler) in the future.

1.5 Handling Frequently Asked Questions

  o If you are asking a basic question, please check the FAQ first. If
    the FAQ is has expired on your system, see section 3 for information
    on how to get a copy.

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  o Many news reading programs allow you to filter the articles in a
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    in your KILL file for rec.autos.sport.* are:

    /Subject: New Users – Read Me First/h:j
    /Subject: rec\.autos\.sport FAQ.* /h:j
    /From: .*A\.H\. Henry/h:j

2.  CHARTERS

2.1 rec.autos.sport

This unmoderated group is for discussion of legal, organised competition
involving automobiles. Discussion from either of two viewpoints,
spectator and participant, is encouraged. Technical discussions are
generally more appropriately carried on in rec.autos.sport.tech, and
NASCAR (and other professional stock car racing) is discussed in
rec.autos.sport.nascar. Arguments about sports cars are largely
inappropriate, as are most other discussions. For Sale ads are
inappropriate unless they are for competition vehicles and/or equipment.
Discussions of illegal events are marginal; one should probably avoid
advocating breaking the law. (remember, the FBI reads Usenet!)

2.2 rec.autos.sport.misc

Replaces rec.autos.sport as the group in which discussion of
organized, legal motor racing that does not fall within the category
of one of the sub-groups takes places.  Now that rec.autos.sport.misc
has passed, rec.autos.sport will be removed in three months, allowing
time for traffic to move to the new groups.

2.3 rec.autos.sport.info

This is a moderated group which contains announcements, results,
standings, news items, press releases, schedules, `reliable’ rumours,
and other information about automotive racing. No discussion is
permitted; followups are be directed to rec.autos.sport.

2.4 rec.autos.sport.tech

An unmoderated group for discussions about the technical aspects of
racing cars. Discussions that are appropriate for this group include
F1/Indy engines, restrictor plates, aerodynamics, semi-automatic
transmissions, exotic fuels, carbon vs steel brakes, active suspension,
chassis construction etc.

2.5 rec.autos.sport.f1

Anything to do with Formula 1 motor racing, including but not limited
to race results, times from testing, practice, and qualifying, silly
season predictions, rumours, and news.  Discussion of teams, drivers,
cars, engines, rules, safety are also in the charter.

2.6 rec.autos.sport.indy

All Indy Car racing related discussion, including but not limited
to race results, times from testing, practice, and qualifying, silly
season predictions, rumours, and news.  Discussion of teams, drivers,
cars, engines, rules, safety are also in the charter.

2.7 rec.autos.sport.nascar

This unmoderated group is for discussions about all aspects of
professional stock car racing, especially the NASCAR (Winston Cup and
Grand National) but also series such as CASCAR and AUSCAR.

3.  THE FAQ

It answers some of the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) in the
rec.autos.sport hierarchy as well as some others which perhaps _should_
be asked.  This is now available in several formats:

3.1 ASCII Text

The latest text version of the FAQ is also available from:
ftp://mgu.bath.ac.uk/pub/rec.autos.sport/introduction

Several other servers have the FAQ, although these may be updated less
frequently.  On some these servers have the filenames for the FAQ are
derived from the "Subject:" line. I think these are an early version of
the FAQ which was posted to rec.autos.sport without suggested archive
filenames.

Europe:
ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk:/pub/usenet/usenet-by-group/rec.autos.sport/in…
ftp://ftp.sunet.se:/pub/usenet/rec.autos.sport/introduction
ftp.uni-paderborn.de:/doc/FAQ/rec.autos.sport
gopher://gopher.uni-paderborn.de:70/0/Service/FTP

America:
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-hierarchy/rec/answers/autos/sport/in…
ftp://ftp.uu.net:/usenet/news.answers/autos/sport/introduction.Z
ftp://ftp.mty.itesm.mx:/pub/usenet/news.answers/autos/sport/introduction
gopher://jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca:70
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/FAQ-List.html

Asia:
ftp://ftp.edu.tw:/USENET/FAQ/rec/autos/sport

3.2 WWW

The latest hypertext version is available by WWW at:
http://www.bath.ac.uk/~bspahh/rasfaq.html
http://www.erc.msstate.edu/~js1/rasfaq.html

3.3 LaTeX

latex2html can compile this into HTML files on your local machine. This
will let you WWW browser without getting each file separately across the
network.  The files are zipped together. Remember to transfer them as binary.
ftp://mgu.bath.ac.uk/pub/rec.autos.sport/rasfaq_latex.zip

3.4 Getting files by e-mail and ftp

If you only have electronic mail, the FAQ can also be
…

Hello
           Could anyone with any information or pictures of the TOYOTA
SERA please contact me at the following address.

davi…@citec.qld.gov.au

THANKS
Chris

Hi all,

I have a 1979 Triumph Spitfire (don’t laugh too hard) which has a stalling
problem. The vehicle has a single Zenith carb on a stock 1500cc engine
with a 4 speed + overdrive transmission. This is a California vehicle
with all applicable smog devices at time of manufacture.

The problem: I’ll fire it up cold and the automatic choke keeps the idle
high until it starts to warm up. When it warms up enough the idle drops back
to a normal level. When I start driving it behaves OK until I want to stop.
As I decelerate and apply the brakes the engine starts to stall. I have
to keep downshifting into lower gears and popping the clutch to keep the
engine running. Once I get stopped the engine idles fine. I could be
coasting to a stop (no gears engaged) and the engine will idle fine until
I apply the brakes, then it wants to stall.

Has anybody experienced this kind of problem? Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

Jeff Dykzeul
j…@navajo.es.hac.com

I would like to know the possibilities for motortuning of a Peugeot 306
S16.Who has experience with this type of car or can recommend a company
to perform motortuning on a Peugeot 306 S16.

I prefer adresses in The Netherlands or anywhere nearby.