The Cal-look Lounge

I am the proud owner of a 1958 Beetle....well it's a Pro-Stock tube car with Autocraft 2500cc engine, ladder bars etc and I have a problem getting it down the track quickly. One of the problems is me- 98kgs, but the biggest problem is finding traction on the concrete surfaces we have out here in Poland. The best time so far is 11.2 @125mph. The previous owner ran the car in England and it used to run mid 10s meeting after meeting. With lots of playing around with shocks, ladder bars and tyre pressures the best 60ft it ever managed on a concrete surface was 1.56.
The question is...apart from moving back to the UK or better still SoCal, what can I do to get a better launch. I was thinking of softer springs, but what would you guys say. The car was originally built in the UK and set up for grippy tracks where wheelies and 1.2 something 60fts were the order of the day.

Chris

how old are the slicks? even at somewhere like bitburg with no prep my 60fts are way better than that,best was 1.24 last year and 1.30 this year,also to much clutch will hit the tyres harder and make them more likely to spin,what do you have for clutch set up? what rpm are you launching at?

cheers richie

Any vidoe of it launching,that would really help to see whats happening

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK68eCdvEIk


This is probably it's best time this season ???

The clutch is a floater and the tyres were fresh last year.

Are you measuring break away torque on the clutch? if so how much? does it have front brakes? just wondering how much heat you get into the slicks from the burnout,it looks like it just spins,no attempt to hook up at all,what hole are the front ladder bar mounts on? still as Karl had it?

cheers richie

The ladder bars are set all the way down, but one hole is higher than the other so that it goes staight- Karl also had it like that. I haven't checked the torque on the clutch. The rpm at launch was initially set at 6600rpm, but I have gradually reduced this to just 4000rpm and it seems to work best. The car has no front brakes and so a rolling 2nd gear burnout is the best I can do. It cleans the tyres and gets a bit of heat in them, but not nearly enough.

Yes, Richie, it spins all the way through 1st gear and then gets going nicely in 2nd and then it's all good after that apart from the occasional crosswind at 120mph. One of the tracks I raced at was uphill and then downhill at about 3/4 track and I could have sworn that it took off.

I had heard about the bars being at different heights,seems strange to me,but if it works :)  You might try putting the bars as high as you can,from what I understand this will hit the tyre the hardest helping with traction,launching at 4000rpm cant help the ETs much,is it legal over there to have some people hold the car in the burn out oldschool style? or add some front brakes and do it correctly :)

cheers richie

I remember seeing the boys from TBS holding Moody back in the early 90s, but wouldn't want to try it myself. Some front brakes would be a better idea.

Looks like you need softer springs on a track like it is on the video - but a better track would help you more . may be you come to Bitburg once for testing ?

Udo

I seem to remember Dave Dinning doing third gear rolling burnouts in his car when it had the spindle mounts on the front - worth a try?

Yes, Udo, I would love to come to some meetings outside Poland, but the main reason I raced at all the meetings I could (I won every one :)) was to show that old Bugs with relatively low powered N/A engines (mine makes about 260hp) can get the job done when it comes to 1/4 mile racing. I know that everyone here knows that, but in Poland it was a shock to the other racers.
Thanks for the idea Neil, but I tried that and it stalled :-[

  Is this car a strut front or beam ?  I did not see any weight transfer at all. I know my Pro Outlaw car will just spin down my 220 ft concrete driveway, but hooks EXTREMELY hard at the track. Here is a vid of it at Darlington ( concrete w/ traction compound) with NO burnout, mine is the red car.                 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJZrEFElU24     You may have to play with the bars, shocks , and tires to get it to hook on that bald concrete. Mike McCarthy

Hi Mike
It's got a strut front end. I've played with the ladder bars and the setting they're on seems to be best. That was a nice launch, but you wrote you had compound on the track- we don't have that luxury.
I will try what Udo recommended and go for some softer springs.

What brand are the slicks and what pressure you running them at????? --- You are not getting any weight trans fer to the rear and that is killing you -- those front tires need to be in the air to be getting your times down

I think the tracks are not that good , this is why i recommened softer springs . the car does not go down when launching. I hope they tried low pressure on the tires

Udo

Re- tyre pressures- the lowest I have gone is .8 bar cold so about 12 pounds/ sq inch

Dear Chris bugster

I do a lot drag racing on concrete in Hungary and Slovakia.
I think you should lower your tire pressure 12 psi is pretty too much.
Depending on the weight of your car, down to 7 psi should be save.
Try to lower the pressure step by step till you still feel save at high speed.
If You want to test there are some good tracks at Hungary:

2013 március 23 Kiskunlacháza
2013 április 13-14 Kiskunlacháza
2013 április 27 Kiskunlacháza
2013 május 18 Kiskunlacháza
2013 szeptember 7 Kiskunlacháza
2013 szeptember 21 Kiskunlacháza

there are always guys from polland:


http://vimeo.com/51270916

MeXX

Thanks for that Mexx, we will try to get to at least one meeting in Slovakia and another in Hungary. I've heard nothing but good things about the meetings in Hungary. The guys from VTG are well known to us, we use their rolling road and a nice bunch they are too.

Dear Chris bugster

Let me know when your are planning to come to Hungary, maybe I can help you to make your car faster.

MeXX