S/G Corvette (New Platform) Above photo of new "Gurney Flap" style wing added recently, early testing looks good. Introducing the newest car in the 60/28 project series platforms. This is the replacement platform for the Pontiac that not only was run to death but had reached too many chassis limits to produce any further improvement in the program. That chassis pictured below was built on the WRP C-07 low tire angle winder. Main rails were .072 JDS tube sheathed in carbon fiber. Stiff as can be. Wheelies were an issue with this car. Edge rubbers with brass bushings inserted. It did work okay and I would do it again if the need for a very short wheelie wheel was unavoidable. Not shown in the photo were late upgrades to the motor box area. A piece of .062 wire from the weak side of the motor plate to the right rear up right got the last this piece had to give. This car always ran straight and true. Used very little glue and produced more than it had any right to. Now retired to the bracket wars. This chassis was if anything durable dependable and extremely consistent and won more than a few races with ET's round after round on the money. The "Greeby" brace that gets this car launched hard and tail view of the Gurney wing. Vastly improved motor mount shown below, a nice upgrade that looks more difficult to get right than is was. New Motor and bracing of the wheelie bar. 7/24/2009 It's not often that you get to build a car that just works right out of the box. Normally there is the cursory blood letting, a crash or two or some problem that just mystifies you. As is always the case it take a few passes to "normalize" new tires, find a bar setting that works nice, maybe a gear change, the usual stuff. All that happened. First passes however were just ungodly smooth if a bit slow registering very low 6's and low to mid 40 mph passes on a very dirty, sticky track that hadn't been services for two weeks. We cleaned the track which improved the MPH but did little for the ET, high .590's, both a disappointment. The tips of the braids looked a bit cooked which is odd for a motor at this power level all things average and I had prepared a set for the car that were shortened, maybe a bit shorter than my standard so I swapped them out for a regular length set. BAM! Two passes back to back, .5691, .5692 hovering 48 mph, upper .11** sixty foot times and splits around .36**. There we go. Less than a half dozen passes under out belt and were cooking. And were doing this on taller gearing and new tires, cool! While this was the fastest pass on a short track, 48.12 mph ever for this project it wasn't by much and well short of the 50 mph number I had expected but it all looked, sounded and just felt good. We pull an old standard out of the box, the Mercury and make a few passes. May need it for the race later anyway. This car is stone axe reliable and lays down the same .675 week after week...but not this week stuggling to a week .710. Hum. Track owner, Larry checks out the electrics of the track and sure enough, 15.88 volts, off a full volt from the quickest passes of the Pontiac which had run those times at 16.8 volts. Consulting my notes I see were down about 4,000 rpm and 6% of our horsepower has vanished due to the low voltage situation. This power thing has been developing over several months now as the batteries age. Normally these are replaced about twice a year but economic times what they are I think Larry is going to squeeze this set until something gives meaning I'm going to have to make a trip soon to see what's really in this car. This 60/28 project started long before this site started sharing the trip so I thought maybe a sort history would be in order. It's not long, there were only two other Lexan cars before it and I'll just give a summary. The first car was a Pro Stock Camaro. This car started at .7609 at 29.65 mph powered by a 502 wrapped in an Edge chassis and ended with passes of .6247 at 40.58 mph, same chassis but a blue printed 502 set up and a 30* 560 arm. The next car was an Edge chassis heavily reworked with a DRS Vette AA/FC body called Jaded. Started at .6019 at 41.15 and ended with .5892 at 45.16 mph, same motor as the Camaro. The Firebird started at .5808 and ended at .5507 at 47.86 mph, although .575 was it's most common dial in. When I look at that I smile because my current hard body cars run as quick as my Lexan Camaro did. We've lowered the ET .2102 and added 18.47 mph so far and in 18 months or so. So the best for last. It ran well enough during test and tune I entered it in the bracket race. Four stellar passes later I had first place in the bag...now two outings in a row! It was slowing pass after pass as the track took on more glue down track with a fourth pass of .5856 on a .5850 dial in and not so typical RT for me of .0020, Yikes!! I caught the other guy within six inches of the finish line in spite of his better light. 07/31/2009 Made a few changes this week. Altering guide attack angle, little nose up and shortened the braid back to .700, added a small Gurney flap to the tail of a very short flat wing and shortened the gearing a bit to 13/51. Freshened the motor but did not cut the com this time, just a good clean and adjust with the addition of shunts which by the way did absolutely nothing for this motor plus or minus so says the dyno. Car gained a fraction of a gram now resting at 76.53 grams. Off the trailer first pass saw a .5538 at 48.12 mph and a sub .1200 60 foot. Two more passes gave a best of .5511 for ET and 49.20 for speed with a series of .1180 60 foots. As the night grew and the glue too the car slowed a bit during eliminations but ran well enough while chasing the dial in for three perfect rounds until I beat myself in the finals flashing the big red eye...just...to take second place. After 6 weeks of the 8 in a series we are now solidly in first place with a fair margin in points, just two more to go!! You may best bet there is a com cut going on this week. 8/7/2009 We won the race in less than optimal conditions for 3 out of 4 and a second closing in on the end of this series. Room temperature was abnormally cool and the glue stiff. It took more than the average 3 passes to get the car dialed into this and not allot was learned. .5568 was the quickest pass but .565 our dial in which is followed better than usual. Some changes we made didn't work, increased guide attack angle and shorter still braids. Some the jury is out on still like a modification of the aero package. The steeper gearing 13/'53 proved difficult to launch but in the right direction. Unless I fall entirely off the map in the final week, meaning a 10 place or worse finish we have this wrapped up. For the final week we will give the car a good cleaning and maybe try the 52 spur. I'll decide when I get to the track and have both ready to roll. 8/14/2009 Good new first, we won the Pontiac challenge points series. Yea, I used the Vette for the last half when the Old Poncho bit the dust. (Cat toy AGAIN) No worries, it's being rebuilt and a new Mustang body will replace it. Better news, nothing but a cleaning and replacing a bent spur gear with the ARP 52 we spoke of and it ran great. My driving stunk up the place but the car was good. Ran high 55's to mid 56's all night, except for the last pass where I over prepared the track a bit and stood it on the bumper at half track. I really do need to lower the bar just a hair. The tires grow enough that if the motor gets ahead of the car a bit and it rehooks...well..it ain't purdy. Anyway, the most consistent evening out this car has had. Now for the not so good news but better outlook. I spent a full day going over a years worth of track notes and dyno sheets on various combinations, motor's chassis, tires, you name it, and have concluded at this point with out more motor this is about as fast as we can run. This new chassis has worked out very well and while it started out actually slower but has produced more consistent results and more 5.50 runs than the old chassis on less track power. We are now down to 15.8 volts and seems to have leveled off there...for now. On average this set up with the same motor is running about three hundredths quicker and just over one mph faster. Quickest pass still belongs to the Pontiac PS but remember that was at 16.3 volts. At this stage of the game 3/100 is a pretty good chunk of change. Part of this was due to a more compliant chassis making it more predictable and easier to run on the edge. Part was a weight reduction of 7 grams of which we've given back not quite two and the remainder due to a better aero package. Most of the success for this can be given directly to George Greeby who is acting as the Crew Chief on this car and his advise and knowledge has been invaluable. His eye for detail and "feel" for a car is incredible. A little adjustment here and there and it fell right in place. If I'd stay out his way it would likely go better but that is the nature of car owners, eh? LOL Okay, we've been expecting this to happen at some point and we really thought the last motor would get us in the low 5's and over 50 mph. It showed allot of promise but failed to deliver mostly on it's lack of grunt to pull the taller gearing needed to get over the 50 mph hump if by just 8/10 of a mph. Increases in timing resulted in a less torque and no increase in rpm. Pushed a bit further even the rpm suffered badly making 46* to 47* the limit in this package meaning were stuck at 75,000 rpm as a top no load speed and still keep enough torque to launch the car at the pace required to get a low 5 pass. I have to back up just a bit here to explain that. On occasion we try different motors in other cars, 12's, 15's and 20's for example. Pitting track info against dyno number were getting 68 to 75% of the motors power solidly down on the track with both 55/28 and 60/28 winds but only 60% with 12's and 55% with 20's. The 15's just don't make as much power as the better 16's. While the track has two nice size, if but tired, low internal resistance batteries and a decent charger set at 20 amps continuous boost the under track wiring is a bit small 6 gauge, and taps are limited. As I've pointed out before in tech such set ups kill top end voltage when asked to deliver large current draws and bigger just acts smaller than it is. As such armatures with resistance reading much below .275 on this track won't give us the bang for the buck. So when I say 85% down I mean 85% of the dyno number at 15.88 volts but the track can deliver that voltage, get my point? While we haven't had this car to Marion or TSS the rail has been both places. It's best delivery at Penrose is 46% but kicks out 90% at Marion where power is good and voltage constant. Judging from our 60' and half track numbers this car is likely in that area as well on a better track...but we're not at a better track so we need a new plan for this track. Here's the problem. Kt and Kv are the same terms expressed in different units and inverse, volts per thousand rpm, Kv and torque per amp drawn, Kt. Meaning that increases in rpm come at a sacrifice to torque and visa-versa...UNLESS...you can increase both via an increase in the motors overall operating efficiency and that is where were headed. Increasing the efficiency is no simple task but in the dyno cell we are making progress toward that end. NO, it won't be "class" legal LOL. NO no details will be given but a general direction can be. A magnet with more mass and more gauss per unit mass. Better field alignment. Closer tip gaps. Less armature WK2 value. Less can leakage. Balanced air gap Goldie Locks perfect. Lower parasitic losses, drag vibration and windage. Bottom line, get more work out of what current is being drawn. So far we have been able to effect a 12% increase in torque with a 6.6% loss in rpm cutting time to rpm by about 18% showing a 34% peak efficiency and a 3% increase in overall efficiency on the mule motor we hope to have in the car in the next week or so. 8/21/2009 Boy Oh boy, where do I start. Okay, lets start with the stats. 60 foot's dropped from the .1183 average over the first three weeks to .1045. 330 foot times down from .3500 to .3174 and 1/8 mile from .5590 to .5125. MPH up from 48.07 to 50.32!!! I noted last week that the new motor produced about a 12% increase in power. If your a numbers cruncher like I am that would not be enough to deliver these times so we didn't get there on motor alone. % power to the track improved from 68%, our previous best effort to 75.5%. So lets hand out the accolades. George Greeby, the Crew Chief: It was on his advise we installed a small X brace tying the struts to the lower rails of the wheelie assembly to both limit sway but more importantly "effectively" shorten (stiffen) the bar. While the bar on this car is short comparatively at 4-5/8, to most, the front mounting point is ahead of the rear axle making it effectively longer than 5 inches while maintaining a less than five measured geometry. My version of a ladder bar car. An ever so slight adjustment was made to the bar height as well, lower by .005". George is also responsible for the motor can selection and preparation. He called the specs, I did the work. Stuart Koford, Manufacture and Consultant: Stu supplied the M-592 magnet package that is responsible for a hefty 12% gain in torque. Not only do these magnets give better gauss readings, they are radial and exhibit a nice resistance to demagnetization. They are extremely well finished and set over set geometrically identical. Nice piece of work here. As far as I'm concerned this is THE best single mag on the market to date. Paul at ALPHA Products, Shop Services: Paul not only prepared the Pro Slot armature that lives in this motor to an uncommonly high standard and at a more than reasonable price, he turned it around in less than a week. Scott Solzberg, PCH, Supplier: Talking about going the extra mile for a team, Scott is the "man". You would not believe the hoop jumps I put this guy threw sometimes. In the course of a few weeks Scott sourced and measured every aspect of single magnet sets we could think off, some not even his normal stocking items. He also sourced the "odd" ball gearing most don't carry. If you need an obscure part and just good basic information before you lay down your hard earned he's you guy. Monty Ohren of Best O' the West, Manufacture: I've never had a problem finding big power in motors, I've had trouble keeping it for more than a pull or two and my methods of motor preparation were the problem. Monty is a science guy first and foremost who really understands what makes a motor tick. It's damn near impossible to dial in a moving target so if you motor is moving around in power you can't accomplish much but the occasional fast pass and then you won't know why. Or if you do won't be able to duplicate it. Not a good scenario for a bracket program. As it turns out I was doing the right steps, just not in the right order of events and getting in my own way so to speak. This months tech speaks to that a bit. With Monty's coaching we now have best usable power that has staying power. This outing was the first time we utilized his procedures to get best commutation at the point of peak magnet stabilization. Not only is it more effective it is allot less work and much simpler that what I was doing. Late Note: You may have noticed the page title change from 60/28 to 55-60/28? While the goal is still to see how far we can push a 16 winding we are going to include ALL the 16 windings due to the rather lengthy lead times on custom armatures so we can keep this project moving along. Under consideration will in the future include S-16-C and S-16-D Outlaw windings that embrace both C can and D can platforms, in sort of Hybrid motor platforms. For the time being we will maintain the ceramic magnet path. We will continue to work on goals 5,6 & 7. George tells me he has more tricks up his sleeve. Me too. 09/04/2009 Well a week off while track owner, Larry Reaver was off racing the big cars. Good enough, we needed a break anyway and some time to reflect. We came back this week to retest some wing ideas and have a talk with Larry about the power situation we've been suffering. I brought the Fluke and was disappointed to find we were still loosing voltage, this week now 15.43 volts. He made a booster adjustment just for a few test passes that got us up to the standard 16.3 volts after some preliminary testing on the wing. George had reminded me that last wing session was diluted with a few other changes we had made and we needed a more definitive answer so we tested again. We had lost about 4/10 of a volt since the last outing so I was pleased that we were still running basically the same numbers, likely due to some slight tweaks to the motor during the off time. As usual I've been able to find the next slight adjustment in the face of constant but gradual track power losses to net a constant reduction in ET and gains in MPH and it was more than time to see what we really had in the current setup. I was also pleased that the shut down area had a good cleaning and re-gluing. So, with our best state of tune and the wing sorted the track is prepared for what I hoped to be a record pass for the project. We were not disappointed. The car left with a .0988 60 foot interval, proceeding to mid track in just .3006 and blowing threw the traps in an unruffled and smooth as silk pass to a final ET of .4771 and a terminal speed of 51.20 MPH. The back up pass to establish the record returned an identical 51.20 mph and an ET of .4812 and in the books. We also got 79.62% of motor power down on the track a near 5% improvement and yes, adjusted for the higher voltage. Things will slow a bit now as I believe that the current set up is about taped out without some weight loss and another boost in power and we have three fronts we are attacking on. 1.) Two new BOW arms showed up this week which were built up in three different PS six mag set ups and one new PS Outlaw arm which is yet untested. This IS NOT the same set up we've been using but a look at a more common, currently available package I can put together without using up my supply of vintage Mura cans and all the work that goes into them to get their best. One of these sixers was a small can variant with a very tight tip gap that really didn't work all that well at the timing numbers I had these arms built too. To much magnet need to be honed out thus magnet mass lost. The two others were a mixed bag. One a wide gap set up and the other a tight tip gap. The second narrow gap motor ran better but suffered the same overtiming problems of the first. The second wide gap motor ran much better equaling the performance of the Mura M-592 motor combination BUT less efficiently meaning it has to spin much harder and runs much hotter to effect the same peak wattage and never did come close to replicating the spool up times of the Mura. However to use these arms in the Mura set up I need to send them out to Alpha for a little Nip-n-Tuck to get a fit. The Outlaw arm will go with these two as well for some shortening and OD reduction plus a good balance job being actually a D can arm. I had really hoped the six mag motors would be a good jump up in power over the M-592 but it didn't turn out that way. Now before you go out thinking these singles are a better mag than the six packs you need to know these singles are not honed to a .520 hole as the sixers are and the Mura can is fitted with a flux ring. On like dimensions the six mag motors are stronger. In yet another borrowed and newer large window quad and a Koford 592 motor both on 520 holes the edge goes to the single but the margin is close enough the end result for users will come in the quality of the entire build. Please, remember that these motors being built would not be legal for any class car thus the results here only a guide. Along the more power theme I'm also building an M-592 in a PS can of identical dimensions as the Mura motor and trying to revive an early small window PS purple quad set up from a customer motor I bought back that went south. It's in pretty bad shape and I don't know how that will go but ya never know. We're also collecting parts for two Koford based versions, one of this motor and an other to test some yet different magnets. Along with looking for power we're looking for a gram here and there and cost/availabiity options. 2.) In the off weeks we started a twin sister chassis that will in function be identical but lighter and with a few minor dimensional errors corrected. So far two grams net saved just in parts modifications at the machine shop. I've machined up a new axle tube I hope will allow me to get a tighter included angle on the gearing while being yet lighter and stronger. 3.) Of all the places weight is most likely to come from the body/wing is a big priority. Not only are we looking at some other bodies but a better lighter paint system. By other bodies I mean near duplicates of this body in lighter gauges with a few minor dimensional/aero changes, a rather expensive and time consuming project. Molds needing to be made and time with a thermoformer. I already have three initial test draws and one pinned up on the old chassis not yet painted or tested and two others with slight modifications still in the wrapper. These test pulls to look at some features "in the flesh" that are hard to visualize without something to put your hands on. Anyway first looks look good for a significant weight reduction. The goal is to see the car sitting on the staging pad at under 70 grams. Other items on the block but not in short order include yet a third chassis using more exotic alloys, a different wheelie wheel system of my own manufacture, titanium axles, lighter front wheel assemblies, a rear mount with some float and a bit lighter, some more efficient gear profiles, ceramic bearings, some different tire compounds and hub diameters and a half dozen other minor items. |
| 55-60/28 Winds Project |
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| Best Passes 0.4771 ET 51.20 MPH (1/8 mile) 09/04/2009 0.**** ET **.** MPH (1/4 mile) |
