Torque converters on Pro Modifieds, who’d have thought?

A torque converter in a full-fledged national Pro Modified race may have been a far-fetched idea in the early stages of the class, but after the IHRA Motor City Nationals in Milan, Michigan, the performances of two teams has a cast of other supercharged teams pondering replacing their clutches with a torque converter for their Lenco transmissions.

Jason Hamstra (6.053) and Carl Spiering (6.054) qualified fourth and fifth to mark the first time two cars have qualified in the top half of the Pro Modified field with torque converters.

The Lenco drive combination was legalized in 2004 and for the most part, Hamstra has been the poster boy for perfecting the combination. Milan marked the first time out with the combination for Spiering.

Torque converters on Pro Modifieds, who’d have thought?

 

A torque converter in a full-fledged national Pro Modified race may have been a far-fetched idea in the early stages of the class, but after the IHRA Motor City Nationals in Milan, Michigan, the performances of two teams has a cast of other supercharged teams pondering replacing their clutches with a torque converter for their Lenco transmissions.

Jason Hamstra (6.053) and Carl Spiering (6.054) qualified fourth and fifth to mark the first time two cars have qualified in the top half of the Pro Modified field with torque converters.

The Lenco drive combination was legalized in 2004 and for the most part, Hamstra has been the poster boy for perfecting the combination. Milan marked the first time out with the combination for Spiering.

“Basically it's just a torque converter, replaces the clutch,” Spiering explained. “It still has the Lenco transmission, still shift it manually, we still have to leave off a clutch pedal, the trans-brake is under the clutch pedal. All we're doing is taking the clutch mechanism out of the car and putting a torque converter in, the torque converter drives the Bruno BRT unit and that's what drives the Lenco, so we're just utilizing the torque converter to drive the car verses a clutch.”

The Lenco drive combination was given a huge publicity push in 2003 during the race for doorslammers into the five second zone. Outlaw doorslammer racer Ron Muenks bolted one into his supercharged car and drove his way to an unheard of 6.096 elapsed time.

The technology has greatly increased since Muenks made his monumental pass in testing.
 

“It's the next thing,” Spiering added. “I believe that the class is getting down to the point where low ET's not winning the races anymore, the consistent ability to cut the tree down is important and the class is becoming a real fast Pro Stock. The class is tightening up so much and I think it's probably the next thing that's going to develop in the Pro Mod and we've done it for two seasons with Jason Hamstra, our motor - his car. We’ve been testing and testing and he's running pretty good so it intrigued me enough to do it.”

Other upper echelon supercharged Pro Modified teams testing the combination are Scott Cannon Jr. and Ed Hoover. A score of other teams are seriously considering making the switch.

The ease and efficiency of the combination is what Spiering says provides the incentive to test the waters.

“You need one less crew member,” Spiering said. “That helps pay for the gas and the fuel in the trailer right. I mean, we've reduced our crew number, we've reduced our expense in the clutch can. Is it the answer? We don't know yet. It's like anything else these days if you don't try it, you won't know.”