[722wdblazer]

i've read a few other posts about "old school tricks" but am not satisfied, so i thought i'd ask if anybody knows of or has heard rumors of some old school little things that will get just that much faster than the other guy, im talking about smokey yunick tricks moonshiner tricks not changing parts or anything but stuff like nitro pills in the tank or spraying a bottle of starter fluid in the tank little things that help out

[timothale]

Joe davis of the davis and ingram team ran a Fiat altered, then the first Mustang Funny car, Colt 45, then Joe had the Jewel T. Google (colt 45 mustang, Jewel t) . 60's funny cars Note how far the mustang is ahead at the starting line. There is quite a bit of info on the Hamb site and pict's and stories by ingram's son. Joe was at a track and asked the tech setting up the lights how they worked and figured out that the red light on the old design did not come on until the light beam hit the eye after the wheel rolled thru, The first thing Joe did was go to solid wheels and moon hubcaps instead of the 10 spoke wheels. with spoked wheels the red light would come on as soon as the light shinned thru the spokes. The next thing he did was put on wheelie bars to keep the front end down thru the lights. and finally he offset the front axle so one wheel rolled thru then the other before the red light would come on. That allowed joe to jump the green light 18 to 20 inches ahead of someone with spoke wheels. He said that was worth about 15 to 20 feet at the finish line. When competors saw the chassis they would say that cars looks weird. Joe would just say after you put your car upside down you have to screw with the front end to keep it going straight at 150 mph. , He would say he had kids that need braces, and could not afford a new frame.

[boothboy]

I was just reading a article about Smokey the other day and since you brought him up I re-read it. Smokey played by the rules. That is to say when he read the rule book he looked at what the rule didn't say not what it said. For example, early racing rules said that you couldn't move the engine back for better weight distribution. So he moved the body forward. The rules said you had to run fuel tanks no bigger than 22 gal. Smokey's fuel lines held a extra 5 gals. Rules said you couldn't re-locate the engine sideways for better handling. Smokey slid the rear end over and made the front suspension shorter on one side and longer on the other. The rules said you couldn't alter the flywheel dimensions. Smokey removed the ring gear and drilled deep holes into the flywheel and then re-welded the ring gear back on. One of the things he did and never told anybody about was re-grind his cams so the engine ran backwards flip the rear wheel assy upside down and re-weld the spring perches. That way the left wheel was the drive wheel and all the torque was on the left side. Quite a guy. I realize this thread is not about Smokey but he didn't just know all the tricks, he invented them!

[deadbodyman]

Go back a little further in your reserch and see what these famous ,hard core guys did on a dime They could give the guys at your local track a good run with all the tricks that are almost forgot.every body nowdays say more HP ,more HP, spend more money go faster.I'd sure like to see what these tricks could do today with a budget motor..

[timothale]

A friend told me his dad used to race dirt tracks in southern California He said his dad had a cam ground so 2 cylinders fired at a time on a V8, the engine ran like a double 4, He said a Mule could pull more by taking strong slow steps that a faster bunch of short steps, and there were the reverse rotation marine engines so the tire loading from axle torque was to the inside.

[cobalt327]

Sort of on the same topic, I witnessed a bit of trickery that was pretty wild- although highly illegal both at the track and with the EPA.

Seems this guy came to the track one day during practice. He was slow to accelerate but the car was on a rail in the corners. This was at the oval at Speed World in Orlando.

He made a few laps at speed and suddenly veered off the track and ended up dug into the infield w/the body askew and the frame dragging on the driver side. It seems that this genius (who claimed he bought the car just recently and had NO IDEA of anything being wrong) had a couple GALLONS of mercury concealed inside the boxed frame rail!!

It took a full-zoot clean-up effort to rid the area of the toxic mess, and last I heard the guy was never heard from again. I'd be real surprised if he didn't get locked up.

More to the point of the thread, there are ways to "loft" the lifter (and by association, the valve) off the tip of the cam lobe by purposely floating the valves to gain a lot of lift and duration. It take a lot of finesse and trial and error to get the details worked out (lobe profile and spring rate, mainly), but when done right the engine will make mondo power over a 'normal' mill.

[cobalt327]

Originally Posted by cobalt327

...there are ways to "loft" the lifter (and by association, the valve) off the tip of the cam lobe by purposely floating the valves to gain a lot of lift and duration.

I should have added that this was done in racing classes where the cam specs were limited by the rules. By doing it this way you are still within the rules regarding lift and duration specs.

If there are no rules limiting the lift and duration you wouldn't do this because it can be hard on the valve train even when done correctly.

[78 monte]

I just know the common stuff like Ice bags on the intake while you sit in the staging lanes.Welding the spider gears cause your to poor to afford a posi for your monte carlo your drive everyday.....(I would never....lol)Remove the front sway bars so the suspension travels more.Put a V6(lighter duty)coil spring in the drivers front corner so the front pops up harder off the line. Hide weight lifters dumbell weights in your body panels for ballast.