[Land-speed] Wire Seal Holes

drmayf drmayf at mayfco.com
Mon Sep 3 07:29:08 MDT 2007


Yhanks, I was curious.

mayf
J.D. Tone wrote:

> In the "old days" 1975 there was no sealing of engines. After 
> qualifying (on the short course this meant going over the record in 
> the 1/4 mile even though the record was set in the mile) you went back 
> to your pit and did what you wanted. In the morning you showed up at 
> the gas truck with an empty tank. You bought the gas, the tank was 
> sealed, and you went out and went both ways hopefully better than the 
> old record. You then went to what was called impounds and removed your 
> cylinder head for measuring. Everything was measured. If you wanted to 
> run again you put it together in impounds. It could possibly be sealed 
> with some tape and fingernail polish.
> When Bruce Johnston and then Dan Warner took over record impounds 
> things changed. Especially to 2 pass instead of 3 pass rules for a 
> record. Today Dan and his team do things a little different. 
> Especially when it comes to the displacement pump. They are sent off 
> periodically for calibration and instructions are followed very 
> closely. If properly used they can be very accurate. For the racers 
> convience the engine MAYBE sealed and that is why we ask the holes for 
> sealing be on each engine. The seal is good for one year.

>
> At any time we may ask for a pump or tear down. It is Dan's 
> discretion. If someone protests an engine I assume it would be 
> measured directly and not pumped.. If a protest does occur and the 
> engine will not be measured on site it must be sealed so that the 
> person does see this is the correct engine they are measuring at the 
> time it is done.
>
>
>
>> JD, all, this is an interesting question. Is this a hold over from 
>> days when there was no impound? Or was there always an impound. Seems 
>> to me that with Dan there eagle eying everything in impound it would 
>> be pretty difficult to make any kind of significant engine change 
>> especially given the 4 hour work rule. And I know there will be 
>> cheats among us who could figure a way to do something. But is this 
>> one of those rules that has outlived it's day? Don't mind it just 
>> curious about it.
>>
>> mayf


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