land-speed
[Top] [All Lists]

RE: Ballast

To: "'Dick J'" <lsr_man@yahoo.com>
Subject: RE: Ballast
From: "Parks, David" <David.Parks@lfr.com>
Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2000 11:15:49 -0800
Dick,

I ran my 79 camaro at Bonneville and the lkes for several years with no
ballast other than the stock gas tank full of water (used this for cooling,
too). I run the stock spoiler which gives a lot of downforce (and drag!) at
speed. Eventually I added about 480 pounds of lead bars, bolted down in the
rear seat well. I think it helped the handling somewhat, hgelped get some
more of the power to the ground, and made the car more stable when I popped
the chute.

Some of the camaros at Bonneville run 500 to 1000 pounds of ballast to hook
up. I think Kugel's firebird came out weighing over 6000 pounds. You can
afford to push more weight there because of the longer distance. The dry
lakes (and Maxton, I suppose) are long drag races, so in general, lighter is
better as long as you can make it handle and get the power to the ground. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Dick J 
Subject: Ballast


Keith,

I was thumbing through one of my old Super Chev
magazines last night and came upon an article
about a Camaro that was run at Bonneville, then
at the drags, then road raced.  The article said
that after running Bonneville, the guy pulled off
800 pounds of ballast to run the other venues.

That got me wondering.  How much ballast do you
run?  Do you run the same at Maxton as you do at
Bonneville and El Mirage?  What do you use for
ballast and where is it mounted?

One of these days, I might just get up to speeds
that will need ballast.

=====
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
*         Dick J          * 
*    (In East Texas)      *
*         # 729           *
* C/GRS   C/FRS    D/STR  *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

__________________________________________________
Yahoo! Calendar - Get organized for the holidays!
http://calendar.yahoo.com/

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
  • Ballast, Dick J
    • RE: Ballast, Parks, David <=