RESTRICTOR PLATE - STAND ALONE SOLUTION FOR SLOWING NITRO CARS?
Tue, 2010-06-15 16:00
Don Schumacher Racing’s contribution to the NHRA’s data gathering process is nothing more than bolting a metal plate onto the blower inlet.
“That’s really about all it is,” confirmed Mark Oswald, who spearheaded DSR’s test of a restrictor plate during the NHRA’s test following the NHRA Route 66 Nationals in Chicago.
His driver, Antron Brown, made two very productive passes with his best run a 3.89-second elapsed time at 304 mph (at 1,000 feet), slightly slower than the team’s race day performance. It was determined that a smaller restrictor plate will be tested in the future. The session marked the first time a Top Fuel team has participated in the testing sessions.
Don Schumacher Racing’s contribution to the NHRA’s data gathering process is nothing more than bolting a metal plate onto the blower inlet.
“That’s really about all it is,” confirmed Mark Oswald, who spearheaded DSR’s test of a restrictor plate during the NHRA’s test following the NHRA Route 66 Nationals in Chicago.
His driver, Antron Brown, made two very productive passes with his best run a 3.89-second elapsed time at 304 mph (at 1,000 feet), slightly slower than the team’s race day performance. It was determined that a smaller restrictor plate will be tested in the future. The session marked the first time a Top Fuel team has participated in the testing sessions.
To date, the restrictor plate concept has been the most inexpensive proposal tested during the data gathering process. The NHRA has tested smaller displacement engines and two different smaller gallons per minute fuel pumps.
“It’s the cheapest proposal so far, I’d have to admit,” Oswald confirmed. “Even though it looked really good, we are going to need more testing. You can’t make an assumption out of one test and a couple of runs when the future of the sport depends on it. It requires many tests over many different conditions.”
The NHRA has asked DSR and Oswald to try smaller restrictor plates in an effort to make the restrictor plate concept even more effective.
“It wasn’t that the test was too good, even though it was a good first try,” Oswald admitted. “Everybody at DSR got together and agreed the direction we took was the way we’d like to test things. Other teams are testing other things and it was a good first effort for us.”
As effective as the restrictor plate concept could be, Oswald doubts it can be a stand-alone solution for slowing the nitro cars down.
“As soon as you put a restriction on one area, there will be those who will try to circumvent it with other things,” Oswald explained. “It’s not quite that simple. There would have to be other rules to accompany it.”
On the first try, Oswald said he didn’t initially see any other parts within the engine show additional out of the ordinary wear, but stressed this was the first test. He couldn’t single out one area which might see extraordinary stress.
“We haven’t tried to get around what the plate did yet,” said Oswald. “There could be a number of areas which might be affected. It just depends on how you try to get around the rule. Everybody has their own ideas. If you take away one part of the tuning process, it might put other things on the edge.”
Oswald believes the challenge with any of the changes will fall onto the crew chiefs.
“Naturally none of the racers are favorable of this; we don’t particularly care for it,” Oswald said. “If it needs to be done in the name of safety we would do it. Naturally a racer wants to do all he can to run quicker and have all of the available tuning tools he can get. All of these ‘supposed’ restrictors take away tuning tools.”
“That’s really about all it is,” confirmed Mark Oswald, who spearheaded DSR’s test of a restrictor plate during the NHRA’s test following the NHRA Route 66 Nationals in Chicago.
His driver, Antron Brown, made two very productive passes with his best run a 3.89-second elapsed time at 304 mph (at 1,000 feet), slightly slower than the team’s race day performance. It was determined that a smaller restrictor plate will be tested in the future. The session marked the first time a Top Fuel team has participated in the testing sessions.
Don Schumacher Racing’s contribution to the NHRA’s data gathering process is nothing more than bolting a metal plate onto the blower inlet.“That’s really about all it is,” confirmed Mark Oswald, who spearheaded DSR’s test of a restrictor plate during the NHRA’s test following the NHRA Route 66 Nationals in Chicago.
His driver, Antron Brown, made two very productive passes with his best run a 3.89-second elapsed time at 304 mph (at 1,000 feet), slightly slower than the team’s race day performance. It was determined that a smaller restrictor plate will be tested in the future. The session marked the first time a Top Fuel team has participated in the testing sessions.
To date, the restrictor plate concept has been the most inexpensive proposal tested during the data gathering process. The NHRA has tested smaller displacement engines and two different smaller gallons per minute fuel pumps.
“It’s the cheapest proposal so far, I’d have to admit,” Oswald confirmed. “Even though it looked really good, we are going to need more testing. You can’t make an assumption out of one test and a couple of runs when the future of the sport depends on it. It requires many tests over many different conditions.”
The NHRA has asked DSR and Oswald to try smaller restrictor plates in an effort to make the restrictor plate concept even more effective.
“It wasn’t that the test was too good, even though it was a good first try,” Oswald admitted. “Everybody at DSR got together and agreed the direction we took was the way we’d like to test things. Other teams are testing other things and it was a good first effort for us.”
As effective as the restrictor plate concept could be, Oswald doubts it can be a stand-alone solution for slowing the nitro cars down.
“As soon as you put a restriction on one area, there will be those who will try to circumvent it with other things,” Oswald explained. “It’s not quite that simple. There would have to be other rules to accompany it.”
On the first try, Oswald said he didn’t initially see any other parts within the engine show additional out of the ordinary wear, but stressed this was the first test. He couldn’t single out one area which might see extraordinary stress.
“We haven’t tried to get around what the plate did yet,” said Oswald. “There could be a number of areas which might be affected. It just depends on how you try to get around the rule. Everybody has their own ideas. If you take away one part of the tuning process, it might put other things on the edge.”
Oswald believes the challenge with any of the changes will fall onto the crew chiefs.
“Naturally none of the racers are favorable of this; we don’t particularly care for it,” Oswald said. “If it needs to be done in the name of safety we would do it. Naturally a racer wants to do all he can to run quicker and have all of the available tuning tools he can get. All of these ‘supposed’ restrictors take away tuning tools.”
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