American race cars (formerly - OT: new car advice)

[Mike Garfias]

Sounds a lot like Penske and the pushrod Ilmor.  Find a loophole in the rules
an exploit the crap out of them.  Got to love a 209cid 2v pushrod motor (on
55in boost) making 300hp more than the rest of the field.

About the good-ol-boy thing: sorry, I hear the stereotype enough, that I feel
compelled to explain to people the error of their ways.


Robert N. Eaton spoke forth with the blessed manuscript:
> Mike Garfias wrote:
> >Also, the nascar engine shops are anything but drunken good ol boy 
> >rednecks.
> >They don't operate the way the stereotype says they do.  They are 
> >scientific
> >in their approach to finding power, and all extremely intelligent.  
> >  
> My use of the the term "good-ol-boy" was not meant to be pejorative; it 
> was merely a nod of the head recognizing that many, if not a majority of 
> stock car racers are of Southern extraction. Nor was it meant to 
> denigrate their accomplishments.  I am astounded at the amount of power 
> and reliability they wring out of an engine that was designed primarily 
> as a passenger car engine rather than a strictly racing car engine.  
> They play their game exceedingly well under the rather restrictive rules 
> that they elect to follow.
> 
> I am reminded a little of AMA motorcycle racing in the late forties and 
> the fifties. Before WWII Harley and Indian dominated the track racing 
> scene, Indian beating Harley more often than not, but both bringing the 
> side valve engine to a fairly high state of tune. But in 1949 Indian, 
> after a disastrous series of  management decisions, went belly up. To 
> take Indian's place a wide selection of British machines became 
> available. Those that were not two-stroke tiddlers, almost invariable 
> had hemispherical combustion chambers, with radially disposed valves. 
> This was an improvement in efficiency, and the high octane gasoline 
> available allowed them to use much higher compression ratios than one 
> could achieve with a side valve design. Hence more available horsepower 
> for a given displacement.
> 
> The AMA in its wisdom (and to keep Harley competitive) limited the ohv 
> engines to 500 cc, and the side-valve engines to 750 cc. The Factory 
> racing Harleys, with their pie-plate flywheels, their swiss-cheese 
> con-rods and their skeleton pistons, were extremely sudden and rowdy 
> bikes, and competed well against the smaller English machines. The twin 
> cam Norton Manx was not allowed to compete in class C racing at all.
> 
> I guess it all comes down to what rules you want to run under.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Bob Eaton
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