Roger, David and all:
I bought Jacques' Phantom Grip kit from him last winter and had Bill Perry
do his most current little machining mod, at his recommendation. I put it
into an a 4.22 that I pulled out of derelict Sprite I found laying on its
side behind a gas station. Took it to Virginia International for the Gold
Cup Historics as a maiden voyage. Other changes since last season are a
drop from 3.9 ratio rear and a WC panhard bar (at Mike Gigante's insistence
from Grattan last year). Otherwise, same set-up I've run for a couple of
years. The rest of the car is basically Spec Sprite, so we're not talkin
nitrous oxide here. I felt absolutely no transition "lock up" with this
set-up, so as a clutch type LS I think it works pretty well. I'm running
the "medium" springs ("full race"--"vintage/rally"--"street" are the three
offerings). On the street, I notice no difference from the open dif
whatsoever. I used to get considerable inside wheel spin on tight corners
(of which there is only one at VIR) and have to say traction was much
improved in that situation. It wasn't 100%, but maybe 85%. Perhaps I should
have gone with the "fuul-race" springs. The proof of the pudding will be
Grattan in August. I'm much more familiar with that track and how the car
behaves there and it's full of tight turns and off-camber turns that would
leave me spinning a wheel with my old set-up. So far, I have no complaints,
and it's a whole lot less money than the other alternatives.
BTW: Bill Perry describes it as a "torque sensing unit." He says as long
as you have "some" traction on the "loose" wheel, it sends power to the
wheel with more traction. But if you lift a wheel (i.e. you now have zero
torque there) it chooses the spinning wheel and you're essentially on an
"open diff". Can someone explain that to me? Please do not exceed the
first chapter on mechanics in the average high school physics book. ;-)
--JohnD
-----Original Message-----
From Roger Cotting [mailto:rbc43 at starband.net]
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2003 10:20 AM
To: spridgets@autox.team.net
Subject: Phantom Grip
This is a somewhat belated Phantom Grip report.
I have knowledge of two Phantom Grips installed
and tested- mine and Sam Hamilton's. I'll tell
you what I know.
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