NITROUS OXIDE ( nos / n2o ) advice forum

THAT would be a SERIOUS achievement!!!

Been trying to get in touch with you guys to discuss this new Max feature (amongst other things) but had no luck, so I thought I'd post it here in the hope you'd spot it;

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=5429

Please give me a call ANY TIME!!!!

Hi Trev.

I've been away on holiday and only read your post today...........

That does look to be a useful addition to the Max Extreme "portfolio". Our Max is set up with a 1 second reset, so that a very small "pedal" will hold the build at whatever percentage we have reached, but a big pedal (more than 1 sec) will reset back to zero.

At the moment we are putting all our time and energy into trying to make the car go in a straight line.............We have found a couple of issues- All four shocks have been dynoed, the L/H rear had weak extension damping and the L/H front was weak in both directions. We have also checked our springs, the fronts are OK but the rear R/H has lost some poundage. These three issues together, would seem a likely cause for the "odd" way the car launches and carries the L/H front wheel a foot in the air whilst the R/H wheel barely leaves the ground!

We are at Shakey this weekend, so fingers crossed that a/ the weather is reasonable, b/ we've fixed it and c/ the track is in decent shape. If everything works out, we should start to run some numbers again and be in good shape to run some stunners at the Euro Finals

Brain.

There you are Martin!!!!

Hope you had a good holiday and glad to hear you're back again.

Not sure I'm with you on the current Max control/settings but the rest makes sense and glad to hear it sounds like you may have found the cause of the problem at last.

I and the rest of the forum still haven't had a full report on the events of thelast meeting, so if you could either post up a report here or send me a copy (as normal) by email, I'd be very grateful.

I'm going to try to get to Stratford this weekend (Sunday probably), so hope to see you there and see you performing better than ever.

Commiserations to the Fat Boy team for failing to secure one more victory to add to this years collection but congratulations on securing the runner up position, which is more than enough to keep their Championship drive well on track.

Appalling track conditions at Shakey meant that Ian couldn't even rely on the Max Extreme to deliver adequate control, as the track couldn't even handle full NA power.

Despite getting a firm grip on that problem in time for the final, unfortunately Ian's lightning quick reactions were just too bloody quick on that occasion and he pulled a red light as a consequence, which meant that although he ran quicker than the winner, he was out of it from the start.

My sincere hope is that the guys have mastered their handling issues (this event didn't give them much to go by to determine if that was the case I don't expect) and that the next event at the Pod will provide suitable condition for them to run a new PB at last.

Well, the good news is that by making the semi-finals at the Euros we now need only to turn up at the National Finals in a fortnight to secure the 2010 Street Eliminator Championship.
The bad news is that we still have handling issues. The launch is now fine but I get bad "torque steer" as the nitrous ramps up pulling the car to the right. Because the front wheels are in the air I am unable to steer so any strong launch ends up with me having to lift then get back on it. At the moment the quickest we can go is 8.20.
I have already found out tonight that the rear springs are too "heavy" at 140lb/in They should be closet to 80 or 90. That's the first thing we will change. We will also be stripping the axle and checking that for straightness - it's done close to 15 years of racing so there may be an issue there. Finally I have provisionally booked the car into Webster Race Engineering for chassis god, Jon Webster, to give it the once over.
It's a lot to do and we have less than two weeks in which to do it. I'll keep you posted.

I posted my congratulations for your current position on a specific thread in the announcements section Ian but I'm happy to repeat them here, so very well done on battling the handling demons and still achieving your primary goal of winning the championship.

What I can't understand is what's changed from when you managed the 7.8 or whatever it was!?!!?!?!

It can't be anything major otherwise I'd expect it to be obvious.
No doubt all the things you've tried to fix it by changing and now intend to do will ultimately help but its my guess that they never will until that ONE issue (whatever it is) is located.

One thing is certain, when you do find it the rest had better watch out, because I've no doubt you'll be on the record trail very soon after.

Best of luck with cracking this elusive problem.

By the way that was a HELL OF AN 'S' tyre mark you left on the track on that last launch and I bet lesser men would have been in the armco rather than keeping it on the track as you did.

It must feel good to be in that position re the championship Ian!!
Yet also a bit flustered to only have 2 weeks to get the extra work done. I reckon a lot of folk would just say, to hell with it, lets just turn up and win. But, I guess you came out with your old saying, "Common sense did not prevail so we are going for it"

Hearty congratulations to you and the team.

Regards
Perry

Thanks chaps. Here's a bit of entertainment for you. For the semi-final against John Sleath we re-fitted the ant-roll bar. BIG MISTAKE! I think this is the launch Trev refers to above. As soon as the nitrous hits the ARB forces the RH wheel into the track making the car go left.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUN9QKaVLj4

This second video shows our usual problem. Although the cameraman misses the initial launch you can see it's got the wheels well up. As the car approaches the tree you can see it's moving to the right. It doesn't actually stop until I get back off the power. The quality isn't the best but if you look carefully you can see it gets out of shape when it lands.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjjLBE-bwZ0&feature=player_embedded

The photo below shows how sketchy it can get. Thanks go to Rob Cox for the shot.

You've got bigger balls than I've ever had Ian!!!!

What causes the initial judder followed by a stall in tyre movement?

I can't wait to see that bad boy go once you get that handling problem sorted.

BTW are there other cars like yours on the track now then?

Dunno the mechanics of it but that's the usual launch - it hits bloody hard mind!
Good news is that several issues have been found with the axle and alignment including, importantly, the 4-link mounts. I don't have full info yet but the plates being out could mean that the lower 4-link arms are not pushing straight on the chassis - that may be the source of our issues.
I am collecting the rebuilt case tomorrow along with new springs and stronger bottom arm links. Tomorrow evening will be very busy as we have to rebuild the axle, fit it and the brakes and all the panels so that I can drive the car to the coach on Wednesday evening.
I am hopeful that this weekend will see us back in the sevens but only time will tell.
Not sure what you mean??

[quote="Fatty"]Dunno the mechanics of it but that's the usual launch - it hits bloody hard mind!
Good news is that several issues have been found with the axle and alignment including, importantly, the 4-link mounts. I don't have full info yet but the plates being out could mean that the lower 4-link arms are not pushing straight on the chassis - that may be the source of our issues.
Fingers crossed that's it and something being bent out of alignment would at last make some sense, because I've never been able to understand why you could run a 7.7 one day and then be unable to the next.
Something getting bent or twisted due to the torque of the launch would make a lot more sense to me, than some kind of adjustment needing to be done.

I am collecting the rebuilt case tomorrow along with new springs and stronger bottom arm links. Tomorrow evening will be very busy as we have to rebuild the axle, fit it and the brakes and all the panels so that I can drive the car to the coach on Wednesday evening.
Best of luck with getting that all done in time Ian.

I am hopeful that this weekend will see us back in the sevens but only time will tell.
Even more luck for that one and it would only be right and proper for that to happen after all your work and it would be a just end to the year to have the Champion run a record time.
I've no doubt there will be those who decry your championship win by saying you wouldn't have won it if the quicker cars had been running this year but they weren't and you were, so regardless of that matter you are the Champ and in response it could just as reasonably be said that had you not had this chassis problem, you would have won by a bigger margin and would have probably beat the quicker cars as well.
Life is about what we do not what we might have done and YOU HAVE DONE IT!!!

Not sure what you mean??
I was watching on the Webcam and thought I'd seen you a couple of times when it turned out to be another class, so I was wondering if there are other 34 Fords like yours being raced now.

Just got a string of pics through from you Ian, so many thanks for those and we'll get them added to the website ASAP.

Once again all the best in getting the car finished and back in the 7s this weekend.

Wish I could be there but Janet is dragging me off on another holiday to Spain this time, but I'll be trying to get updates on the internet as often as possible.

IT'S OFFICIAL

Ian Hook is the 2010 Street Eliminator Champion, despite the serious handling problems he's battled with all year!!

So a HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to Ian and his committed team.

Well done lads after a difficult weekend to come in second

Yes I'll second that and they came close to running in the 7s again.

How about an update on your weekends activities on your thread Ron???