Got lucky at the track

psfracer

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Somehow avoided a blowout on the rear tire, would have been pretty bad if it happened at the finish line.

Got some good 240 fps film of the burnout and launch, however.

Basically you can see the tire make contact with the front of the fenderwell at the hit, which bent the metal outward towards the tire. Then, as I went faster down the track, the tire grows in height, and that bent piece of metal was slicing deeper and deeper into the tire. There was some slight smoke in the interior at the finish but at the time I didn't really even notice it. Still ran an 8.90 at 152 with the back tire being eaten alive by the bent fenderwell.

When I saw the time slip at first I though I might have lost a plug, as I was off 3/10ths and mph was down by 6. So at first I thought I might have hurt the motor. But as soon as I got out, I saw the tire, I was pissed but happy at the same time. Pissed because my weekend was over. Happy because the motor was just fine, and the tire somehow held together so I didn't go into the wall.

I am going to check everything under the car, do some additional trimming, and try again next weekend with a new tire. Not really sure why it did it this time, I have ran this size tire before with no problems. I am going to adjust both LCAs to move the rear tires back a 1/4 inch or so.


 
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lindertw

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so the jury is still out on the strut upgrade... :)

glad you and the car are ok; is mini-tubbing an option to tuck the rears?
 
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mikeysgt

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Glad it wasn't worse Paul. I had the same thing happen to me a long time ago and had to bend the piece of fender in after seeing what was causing a line in my tire.
 

Riptide

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Warfords had the same thing happen. Do a search.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatwat
 

ILW84U

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Good to see that nothing serious happened. I think when this happended to someone in the past it was the anti-squat bracket that bent.
 

stkjock

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Damn that's crazy. Had a local friend have a similar thing happen on his 04 Cobra.

U can see the rear wing undulation on the launch as well.


Good luck sorting it out.
 

psfracer

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As soon as the new tire comes in, I am going to look at everything and check everything out. I have a couple ideas of what it could be. We will see.
 

Wes06

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holy shit man, glad that tire didnt explode on you at the top end.
hope you figure it out and get it steamin down the track again soon
 

lethe

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That could have been really bad if it let go on the big end. Glad to hear it held and you still got a decent run in the end.
 

psfracer

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How jaded am I when I say an 8.90 is not a decent run.......

But yes, very happy I made it back to the pits in one piece.
 

psfracer

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My first thought was it did that because I had the anti-roll bar adjusted wrong (as the car twists quite a bit). But, it makes contact right at the hit, not a few feet out where the twist is the greatest.

My first suspect is the drivers side LCA. We will see. Whatever flexed, it didn't affect the rest of the run (as far as the car tracking straight). The only reason for the contact down the track is because the metal was now bent from the initial contact.
 

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