Hi Dick ! Just my own opinion ( and everybody has one ) :
Railroad rail is great for making up little mini anvils for in your shop or
out
in the driveway ........ and also for running trains on . NOT GOOD at all
for ballast ...... you need long, clumsy lengths to get any weight at all
......
it is not COMPACT enough . THICK steel plate takes up much less space
and can be stacked and fit down LOW where you want your ballast
positioned ..... BUT ..... LEAD is much better ...... you can melt it and fit
it into custom made containers that are duck soup to weld up and mount
exactly where you can fit them in, and as Dale mentioned, lead shot can
be an "adjustable "source of ballast ....... if you want to be scooping it in
and out, or handling little bags of it . Water is only 62.4 pounds per cubic
foot, or 8.33 pounds per gallon, so it is third rate when compared to
steel or lead in any given cubic measurement . The advantage water has
as ballast is it can be added or removed easily near the racetrack, so you
don' t have to tow that dead weight . We ran some water ballast at
Speedweek, but would have been much better off with more lead for a
greater total weight of ballast . Railroad track is easy to mount as you
can just torch some mounting bolt holes in the web ...... quick n' dirty
......
but it certainly LOOKS like a " jury rig / baling wire " approach to building
a nicely crafted race car of any type . I also feel the majority of your
ballast
should be concentrated WITHIN the wheel base of car to give the car a
lower polar moment of inertia, ie; not heavy out at the ends ..... and as
LOW as is feasible to help maintain a low center of gravity ...... this is not
drag racing, where guys used to mount ballast ( and engine / trannies )
way up high to get additional weight transfer to the rear slicks when they
launched . That is why NHRA put the 24 " MAXIMUM crank centerline,
at front pulley, to ground rule into effect ...... or somebody would have
built a car with the carbs at eye level to get a little more bite . We knew
of one VERY WELL KNOWN engine builder / match racer / and pro stock
builder / driver / HERO who had lead ( lots ) poured into the extreme
rear / upper insides of his rear fenders, just leaving enough room to
squeeze the tail light assemblies in place . Another successful
application of " EVERY LITTLE BIT HELPS ! "...... IT WORKED, even
if quite ILLEGAL !
Since a pound of feathers weighs JUST AS MUCH as a pound of lead,
I guess just about anything could be incorporated into the car as ballast
...... but I also think a race car should reflect sound ideas, a high degree
of workmanship, and some time spent in what the overall requirements
are, the compromises that have to be made to attain maximum performance
with the parts and funds available, and some good old back yard
engineering that has enabled HOT RODDERS to achieve the speeds and
records they have for quite a few DECADES now !
Have FUN building your wheels ...... and if you already have the
RR track ..... you might want to weld a piece of 1 / 2 " plate on one end,
stick the other end in some concrete outside your garage .......
and have a very handy welding / grinding table for those fair weather
days you have down there in Texas . This can help keep your
shop clean when doing lots of fabrication .......
Bruce, on frigid East coast,
recalling those hot days in Utah, last year .......
Rome wasn' t built in a day .......
and neither are nice racecars
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