FrontEngineDragsters.Org Forum
Drag Racing Discussions => Front Engine Dragsters => Topic started by: tony1966 on August 05, 2014, 03:47:01 PM
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Planning to get my fed out for the first time tomorrow for some very easy passes to get used to the car. Hope to get my license later this summer. Any helpful advice?
The car i bought ran 7's and the fastest ive gone is high 9's so i am going to tread softly at first. Looking past the bug catcher (see pic in avatar) will be a challenge for me and I ran in to fogging glasses (blind as a bat without them though). The car has a big block mopar on alky, powerglide.
Thanks!
Tony
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Tony take your time and only go as fast as you feel comfortable with . The more laps you make the easier it will be ! More than anything have fun ! Bill
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Motorcycle shops carry an anti fogging spray for your glasses and only keep the visor down when going foward. Do not steer the car - only make corrections. When you are on the track---you own every inch of it, take your time and let nobody rush you. Play out what you are going to do many times and also inform a crewperson so they can help when you forget---Push tranny brake button in order to back up
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Motorcycle shops carry an anti fogging spray for your glasses and only keep the visor down when going foward. Do not steer the car - only make corrections. When you are on the track---you own every inch of it, take your time and let nobody rush you. Play out what you are going to do many times and also inform a crewperson so they can help when you forget---Push tranny brake button in order to back up
Good advice ! My car will be done toward end of month and very excited and a few butterflies, but can't wait. This will be my first in a dragster and a FED at that. I have driven and Altered and learn to take your time and think,focus and no rush. I have great memory's of Great Lake Dragway ,when I was a kid. Good luck and have fun !!
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Planning to get my fed out for the first time tomorrow for some very easy passes to get used to the car. Hope to get my license later this summer. Any helpful advice?
The car i bought ran 7's and the fastest ive gone is high 9's so i am going to tread softly at first. Looking past the bug catcher (see pic in avatar) will be a challenge for me and I ran in to fogging glasses (blind as a bat without them though). The car has a big block mopar on alky, powerglide.
Thanks!
Tony
I have both issues you talked about, (seeing by the bird catcher and glasses fogging).
I have tried every spray and liquid I can find to stop the fogging, but none have worked. I have found that a head sock helps. I keep the visor up until I start my burn out and flip it back up to back up. I flip it back down just before I put the first blub on.
Visibility down track is not so bad once you get used to it. Look as far down the track as possible at the center of your lane , do not look at your front wheels and the wall as you will find you go where you are looking.
When backing up, back up until just before the water, then pull forward getting your self straight (this is very important). Gentle touch on the wheel, the FED should go straight make small corrections if needed.
First launches should be short, if the FED does not go straight check the circumference of your rear tires, they should be equal, adjust air pressure if needed, don't make a full run until the launch is straight.
Finally, TAKE YOUR TIME, you need to be comfortable and safe.
Let us know how you make out.
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I use some stuff called Zoi, think it is spelled right. I use it on my visor and both sides of my glasses and fogging has not been a problem.
Mark
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I agree with the others....only go with what you can still feel comfortable with. Learning to look around the injector will get easier and you will start using the horizon more to help.
As far as the fogging it happens to both glasses and visors. I used to use shaving cream on my visors and it will work on glasses too. All the circle trackers here used to do it. In the age of anti-fogging lenses, I have not had to use it for years.
I have also heard about using a fresh air source plumbed in to the helmet helps the visors...could possibly help with glasses.
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Its all about how comfortable you are. I went 7.93 on my second hit during lic. runs. but I worked on the car for a few years and knew all about it before driving. You will be surprised how fast comfort comes. Fastest I ever went before fed was 10.50's in a door car and now 7.90's are not fast enough. As long as you are having fun, that's all that matters! Good luck and remember if you see the 1/8th mile marker on you first burnout it was long enough. lol I got a little excited the first wack of the throttle.
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Looks like you've gotten plenty of great advice, So Have fun and have somebody take pics,, Tim Jones
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Thanks for all the advice. I picked up some anti fog stuff at the store, I'll try it out this afternoon when it gets hot out. I'll definitely be keeping the visor open as much as possible, though.
I'll let you know how it goes.
thanks again!
Tony
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I agree with taking it easy, and comfortable. My 1'st time driving a FED in 1963 [ before RED] I had some visual experiences. You see your brain is your computer, your eyes are lens, and your ears are microphones. So what happens is your brain is not used to [ programing] for taking in all that data so fast. Each pass you'll feel more comfortable as you brain gets reprogramed, plus the affects of adrinalin [sp?]
Some racers I know had fogging problems until they installed a helmet breath guard, from a motorcycle/ snowmobile shop. It keeps your hot breath off your shield. Check the M/C snow shop for anti fogging stuff. When I was driving at night I would put my goggles under my shirt before putting on my helmet so the goggles were the same temp as my face, ala no fogging. Of course that when open face helmets were legal.
The best would be to go to a Frank Hawly driving school, and they have you take it in steps, launch 1'st 2'nd 330', 3'rd 1/2 track, etc.
I always practiced each step of a run, sitting in the car, to program my actions/ reactions, so I did each step automatic. Don't worry about the blower visual issue, you'll drive it looking down the track just keeping the car in the center of the track. My worst visual was my dual engine BBC Top Gas Dragster, were I sat low enough behind the motors so my line of site was in the middle of the blowers.
A 6 foot tall person could stand at my front axle and I could not see any part of him. But then again nobody should be standing there before I make a pass.
I hope this all helps !
Jon Hansen, Hayden Wheels
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Still to make a pass in FED. With my TA/D I did pretty much the same a license deal.Stage drop hammer and shut dwon around 60' then 330 and then I went full track ,well about 100o foot and popped blower. DO IT AT YOUR PACE and forget what everyone else thinks.They did not pay for it and any idiot can hold a throttle down, it takes adriver to know when its time to lift and bring her back for next run.
I use to sit in car and make practice runs doing every thing just like a run from firing to hitting chutes .Might seem stupid to some,but it does seem it should help program brain for automatic reflex.
Have fun this crap cost too much money and work not to enjoy it some.
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Chris did you make motor sounds too!!!!
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yeap and she sounds bad a oops almost got introuble there.LOL Was affraid might not have enough to win that round so I hit the laughing gas button. Ok now back to the original programing.
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Chris did you make motor sounds too!!!!
Making motor sounds is a requirement.
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I think sitting in the car, visualizing and executing every action from starting the car to stopping at the far end, that you are going to go through on every run is EXTREMELY valuable and helpful. I drove a hundred passes in my mind before I ever went down a track in any car, many of them sitting in the car and going through the motions. I still do that to this day. I usually won't make the motor noises unless no one is around though... It's still not the same as at the track when the motor is lit and the heat is on, but it HELPS.
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I had not driven since 1971 (and then only an 11 second six cylinder FED) when I got my fuel ticket in 2010. As everyone else has said, make sure that you are comfortable in the car and practice until you can work the controls without thinking. I was lucky enough to get the very first burnout right, just enough smoke and did not zing the motor (no throttle stop). After the first launch it was easy, I then knew what it felt like and stepped it up run by run. I even pedalled it when it carried the front end and headed inside on the second hit. The third time was a half track shot (actually about 600ft) and it went 8.98. Another one of those and then a 1000 footer where it went 7.10 before nosing over rich. The first full pull it again nosed over on the top end but still ran 6.86.
I guess that I had a bit of an advantage having built the car and also having been around fuel cars for a long time so when things happened I thought "OK, that's what that actually fells like". The nose over deal was a prime example. The car was pulling hard and suddenly I was up against the belts (Big show speak "My head hit the dash"). Time to lift.
On the helmet fogging I do the same as Glenn. I leave mine open one click on the detent for the burnout and the first thing that I do when I stop from the burnout is to open it all the way. I usually close it right before I put the first light on so that my left hand is free to make sure the motor is on the high side before I bump into the second light. A twin eye port head sock helps and if you are running at night in cool weather putting the helmet under the heater outlet in the tow car also helps. Just place it so that the heater blows into the helmet (with the visor shut).
Roo
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I had not driven since 1971 (and then only an 11 second six cylinder FED) when I got my fuel ticket in 2010. As everyone else has said, make sure that you are comfortable in the car and practice until you can work the controls without thinking. I was lucky enough to get the very first burnout right, just enough smoke and did not zing the motor (no throttle stop). After the first launch it was easy, I then knew what it felt like and stepped it up run by run. I even pedalled it when it carried the front end and headed inside on the second hit. The third time was a half track shot (actually about 600ft) and it went 8.98. Another one of those and then a 1000 footer where it went 7.10 before nosing over rich. The first full pull it again nosed over on the top end but still ran 6.86.
I guess that I had a bit of an advantage having built the car and also having been around fuel cars for a long time so when things happened I thought "OK, that's what that actually fells like". The nose over deal was a prime example. The car was pulling hard and suddenly I was up against the belts (Big show speak "My head hit the dash"). Time to lift.
On the helmet fogging I do the same as Glenn. I leave mine open one click on the detent for the burnout and the first thing that I do when I stop from the burnout is to open it all the way. I usually close it right before I put the first light on so that my left hand is free to make sure the motor is on the high side before I bump into the second light. A twin eye port head sock helps and if you are running at night in cool weather putting the helmet under the heater outlet in the tow car also helps. Just place it so that the heater blows into the helmet (with the visor shut).
Roo
I thought for sure I saw you in and FED at Indy about 5 years back?
I'll have to try the helmet under the heater output
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I thought for sure I saw you in and FED at Indy about 5 years back?
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Was Roo under a race helmet or his trademark Akubra hat?? :)
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I made it out yesterday, and I can't thank you enough for all the helpful hints. Spend most of last night fooling around getting the valves set, going over the procedure with my helpers (two seem to be the minimum I can get away with) and going over in my mind what to do. Finally near dusk i got around to making a pass.
Burnout was good, but i seem to have an off idle stumble which helped a bit. Once the motor caught itself the rpm's came up and the burnout, according to my brother, looked perfect. The stumble caught me again on the line, but when the engine caught on, it was out like a rocket. I tried to shift to 2nd right away, but somehow bumped the shifter too far and got neutral. At this point i was out of the groove anyway, and I was NOT looking at the horizon any more, so i just idled the rest of the way. All I can gather from the run was "Wow, this thing is fast!". But I had a huge smile on my face the rest of the day, and not so nervous.
I didn't feel too good about making a run at night yet and the track gets dewey (is that a word?) so i packed it in. I'm going back tonite for hopefully a couple more runs after i fiddle with the injection.
I got a couple of thumbs up and the like from some of the folks there (that's at least some of the reason we do this, right?) and I had a great time. And I can't wait to get back in the seat now.
Tony
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Went into neutral---- do a leakdown
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I thought for sure I saw you in and FED at Indy about 5 years back?
I'll have to try the helmet under the heater output
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I drove your car after I got my fuel ticket Glenn. That is why a low 9 second run made me feel like it was parked :)
Roo
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It is funny how your perspective change with more speed. My firs car ran 6.30 1/8 first season.2nd year was running 5.90 with few new parts.Broke the 5.13 reargeart and swapped in a 4.86 dropped it back to 6.19.Man I thought I could get out run faster on foot.
Now going from 5.70 1/4 TA/D car to a hopefully high six second car.MAybe the front engine vs rearengine will help keep the fun meter up there. Those sub 6 second runs get costly quick.
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Yes, the heat-up your helmet is a good idea, it is what I did when racing at night in Wisconsin. The point is to have the helmet shield close to your body temp. Sometimes I just took the shield off the helmet and put it under my suit next to my body.
NOW about going into neutral during a run, you may need a better shifter that has a lock-out to prevent going into neutral OR reverse.
We had a trans linkage issue last year, when our driver shifted into high gear, it went into neutral, motor went to 12,000 rpm, broke the block, some pistons, some rods, one head and some lifters. A high RPM rev limiter will not catch a fast reving motor unloaded. That will be about $13k to replace. Fix your shifter so you don't ruin your fun before you really get started.
Jon Hansen, Hayden Wheels and Hammer-Hansen-Hook-Ramay JrFuel
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Jon maybe next time list what did not break would be better.
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I did find some anti fog spray and used that a couple of times, it seemed to work ok. I'll try heating up the glasses, too. Never thought of that.
On the shifter, I'll chalk that one up to bone head driver. there's a stop to prevent from shifting past second, but somehow i managed to get by it. Perhaps a little too excited? :) If i do it one more time, the shifter is getting modified/replaced. I've got a 7K chip on it and i never got into the rev limiter, the motor should hold together till at least 8500. Once i get this stumble thing figured it'll be way easier to drive.
I was thinking of high gear only runs to make the learning curve a little easier. I am not looking to set any records, have plenty of time to let the trans cool, as that'll work the converter pretty good.
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Need to take a look at that stumble...
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nice to hear you got out for a pass, How'd the motor check out ,, Tim Jones
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nice to hear you got out for a pass, How'd the motor check out ,, Tim Jones
I haven't worked on car too much lately, helping my brother out over the weekend. I am trying to get a handle on the mech fuel injection (see my post in Spud Miller's section), but learning so much from you guys. To date, I have 4 passes on the car, and am getting more comfortable each run. So far I've only managed 10.03 on a car probably run 7's, but I'll get there. And there is nothing more fun than the burnouts!
My only regret is not getting one of these sooner!
tony