land-speed
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Re: Ballast yet again

To: "Keith Turk" <kturk@ala.net>, <ardunbill@webtv.net>,
Subject: Re: Ballast yet again
From: "Glen Barrett" <speedtimer@charter.net>
Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2003 12:30:00 -0700
Keith
Me thinks a couple of low speed check out runs would be my priority before
you push it. Find out how it feels first then get on the power. It's a
different beast then the girley car and will feel a lot different, and you
are in the wind with your face, keep mouth closed.
Glen
----- Original Message -----
From: "Keith Turk" <kturk@ala.net>
To: <ardunbill@webtv.net>; <land-speed@autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2003 12:14 PM
Subject: Re: Ballast yet again


> Bill from talking to Ron last night... he had the bias to the rear for
> traction... he said the whole car created downforce at speed... but he had
> no way of substantiating that statement.... ( no data acq )
>
> What I do know is that the car went around once for some reason or another
> ... the strongest suspicion from the driver is that he forgot the throttle
> pedal works both ways.... and stayed in it to long after it got loose on a
> rough track....  ( the fella was brutally honest about this so I believe
> him )   The fact that the car didn't go dead straight while it was
spinning
> the tires is my biggest concern....  There is no shame in spinning a
tire...
> it's when the car starts to wiggle at big speeds due to poor balance or
> springs.... ( seems like I remember this from 2001 speedweek at around 220
> mph )  My major concern is that I'm going to be out on the big end using
all
> the Hp available ... ( See John Goodman  for comments on hanging it out )
> and have the car unbalanced.... just doesn't work for me as a starting
> point.
>
> Joe's work on the Camaro and my work in the past made the Camaro handle
like
> your passenger car even when it was spinning the tires no matter what the
> speed...
> Hence the knowledge that what we were doing was Right....  so there you
> go...that's what I know about it.... after that it's all a guess...
>
> K
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <ardunbill@webtv.net>
> To: <land-speed@autox.team.net>
> Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2003 1:09 PM
> Subject: RE: Ballast yet again
>
>
> > Are we to understand that the big weight bias to the rear was for
> > traction, or was it to offset some aero upforce effect at high speed
> > with that particular body?  I assume under neutral aero conditions we
> > don't want a rearward weight bias because if there would be any
> > fishtailing, the tail-end weight would accentuate it and might increase
> > the tendency to spin or swap ends.  Bill

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