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Re: Traction over 400

To: Dave Dahlgren <ddahlgren@snet.net>
Subject: Re: Traction over 400
From: Rick Hammond <r.hammond@sympatico.ca>
Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2001 11:13:50 -0500
Dave Dahlgren wrote:

> I don't mean to belittle going 400+ mph in any way, but something has occurred
> to me over the years. The progress in the unlimited cars has been very slow.
> Does anyone have some insight why this is? It seems like cars were going 400+ 
>in
> '47 and to date the best improvement has been this year at just under 460 and
> the piston record is only about 6 mph better than '47.. Is it lack of entries,
> lack of technology, or have we reached the limit of adhesion to go much 
>faster?
> Certainly we have the power available. Does anyone know what the speeds were 
>on
> Vesco's 458 run on a by mile basis as well as the others that have run in this
> range. It might be interesting to plot the acceleration rates for each mile 
>and
> see if there is something in common with all of them.. I am starting to think 
>it
> all comes down to where the rubber meets the salt as when I last got an e-mail
> from Tom Burkland he mentioned running 450 at 53% throttle

Hi Dave,
Just idle thought, (it will be a long time before I have to deal directly with 
this
problem ;-) but assuming power to spare, plus available downforce from 
aerodynamics,
wouldn't an increase in tire size help, of course up to the point where it ate 
up
enough of the available power?
Cheers,
Rick

> so it is not about
> power available in my mind it might be about 'sticktion' though. May be we
> sometimes have to just close the hood and see what is the real problem....
>
> I would love to hear from those that have run in the 400 and over range what
> they think is the next big hurdle to going faster if they would like to share
> their thoughts with the rest of us...
> Dave Dahlgren

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