Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

The car Tony Hunt drove at this years little 500 had a 14 thousand dollar Corvette Crate motor.

It Qualified 5th for the race and finished 3rd Behind Eric Gordon and Shane Cottle and I believe it finished on the lead lap.

I know Tony Hunt is a good driver and I know non wing on a 1/4mile asphalt track isn't even in the same ballpark as wings on half miles but I still find it impressive and encouraging that the car was not only fast but reliable for that long a race.

There are so many excellent sprint car engine builders out there that I hate to think of a crate motor taking business away from them but......

I am very encouraged that people are seeing some success with engine options that cost 1/3 to 1/2 as much as the stuff that is basically mandatory to have these days.

Loose is when you hit the wall with the rear of the
car, tight is when you hit the wall with the front of
the car. Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall and
torque is how far you move the wall.

If you guys want to experience REAL HP...ya just need to go for a ride with me in my..COROLLA!

TSA...It's not a GROPE...it's a Freedom Pat!

Agreed that it is an interesting topic. I think most of the answers that would be considered smart a*#&#& are just personality types. Someday all in here will realize we have a common ground and interest and ease up on each other a little. There are varying degrees of sprint car knowledge from a fan, driver, owner or mechanic's perspective. A fan may know a LOT about sprint cars from watching for 30 years but doesn't know what part number a shock for the left rear is. Does that make them stupid or worthy of being bashed? NO.

OK... agreed, all I've ever read is that 10 dynos will give you 10 different sets of numbers on the same motor. Some people have/had dynos that had incredible numbers but weren't winning WoO races. Was it purely that the top teams didn't run their stuff or were the numbers "fabricated"?

Agreed, all the horsepower in the world makes no difference when you can't set up a car. Unwinged car even further reduces the importance of raw horsepower placed in the wrong hands.

The "hot" motor builder changes all the time, fact. Ron Shaver being mentioned as a possible wave of the future is interesting... he was building aluminum block sprint motors in the early 80's that I recall. 30 years = longetivity. The fact you don't see his name all over the top WoO teams like in the past must be geography based as much as anything. Gaerte has always been a top dog; look at early 80's pics of Steve Kinser and the Nance house car driven by Mr. Swindell for proof.

As always, I'm partial to Wesmar Engines for a variety of reasons. They have been such a big player in the ASCS, which dominates my area. Our family sponsored car had Blue Max engines built by Bob Wesphal of Wesmar. Kelly is an awesome dude... so... BUY WESMAR, ask questions later lol.

It is interesting to hear what a good motor makes today vs. 10 or 20 years ago. The topic itself isn't flawed IMHO.

I believe Schatz won the Fargo All-Star race running the experimental Shaver. He said in victory lane that he was down a 100 HP to everyone that night...I think there are plans for Schatz to get some lap time with this motor at the Nationals next week (not during any points races). I know Kville is very interested in this deal.

the dyno is there for several reasons, one least important is the top #'s a mill generates at what RPM,(ya, its cool) more importantly is the torque curve #'s ,how earlie and how late the #'s top off, when the cylinder runs out of air velocity,exhaust temps , most importantly! the Fuel mixture at which the most HP and least damage will be obtained! , If your tayloring to specific tracks ,specific pocket books, the #'s will tell no lies, taylor to your specific demand , Fuel the mill accordingly

Don't think it was mentioned here before but Schatz used that "test engine" at the All Star event in West Fargo last week. Probably didn't want to pull the transporter to Fargo when they live here and have cars here. His comment after the race was, "we were a hundred horsepower down with this engine but it really didn't matter cuz the track was so slick". And it was an old Parker Store car but this time he had an Armor All decal on the yellow top wing. Big question on people's minds after that race was: would Schatz have won that race (passing Tim Schaefer in traffic) if 2nd place Smoke had not hit that inside barrier and blown a tire on lap 25 or 26.

Adding $6 trillion of debt in his 1st term and now if 
elected again he wouldn't have to worry about an 
electorate in 2016 so the sky is the limit.And his EPA 
would continue to put the screws to oil drilling and 
mining for coal.Can you say bankruptcy.

Member of this message board since 1997

Don't know about now but Kriners have had their share of wins.

I was just going to ask that. Do any PA teams still run a Kriner engine? Also don't see tha Gaerte name out there that much any more either? I know the Wolf used to run a Singer, is he still doing engines?

5 or 6 yrs ago when Jake Peters was running his own car in the 360 class at Knoxville and in the 410 class at Husets I was told that he was using Singer engines.

If I remember right he won a few races at Husets with a 360 in the car that year.

Don Ott powers most of our heavy hitters... http://www.donottracingengines.com/victorylane.html

Rider also does a lot of business... http://www.riderracingengines.com/customers.htm

Both seem to be winning their fair share. Don Ott is supposedly more cutting edge if you can afford it, but he will also build what you want. Rider is supposedly a little more straightforward and cheaper.

Big # motors really only help you in time trials and the heats if the track is fast. Most the time during the feature drivability is key, especially with tire and wing rules in play that unhook the cars a bit. Big # motors also only really matter on big tracks were you don’t run much gear.

Big smooth horsepower (~900 HP) does usually go hand and hand with higher rpm though; and high rpm goes hand in hand with lightweight NASCAR/F1 influenced assembly and valve train components which also means big $$$$ and a short lifespan for your buck. When the money is on the line in the feature high dollar powerplants have diminished returns however, they are more for locking you into a good starting spot.

 
 
 
They don't even know how to spell sprint car 
much less chromoly...http://www.ycmco.com

Good info,,,,,,Pa. has the big HP tracks and that makes a difference . jmo

Judging by WoO qualifying at big horsepower tracks, indycar engine builder Rick Long with Speedway Engines probably builds some of the stoutest motors right now for Kasey Kahne Racing and Joey Saldana.

 
 
 
They don't even know how to spell sprint car 
much less chromoly...http://www.ycmco.com

Schatz won with the corvette motor which is supposedly down 100 hp, nobody mentioned that it as 429 cubic inches which is not legal. Guess rules don't apply if you have home field advantage.

A bit of history, I believe Doug Wolfgang liked Singer engines.

.

Kinser talking about PA horsepower in "Outlaws Arrive for Weekend" video... http://www.whptv.com/content/LocalRacing/default.aspx?articleID=144702

 
 
 
They don't even know how to spell sprint car 
much less chromoly...http://www.ycmco.com

Robb cappetta and morrison are two nice motors. Doug esh said that the cappetta motor really take off.

You are correct. Charlie also won 100K Dream with Donnie Moran and a Kings Royal with Joey Saldana. He still has to be doing something right. At this years Kings Royal all three of his cars were in the top ten in qualifying on Saturday night. Sam Hapertee is correct though they always say that the ones making smaller numbers on the dyno feel better. The motor in Dale Balney's car at the Kings Royal made 912 HP on the Dyno, but the engine he won with on Wednesday night at the Doty was only around 880 HP.

i have always wondered and think that are the engine builders building special engines for tracks like the grove where lots of speed gets scrubbed off and the lower rpms at the time could benefit from power in mid range more so than the top rpm power

Pro Power builds probably some of if not THE best late model motors....They are heavy hitters that is for sure....I think Shaver has so many other business ventures besides motors that he will never really fall off because he builds the best of the best no matter what it is. Plus he is a really nice, awesome guy. Gut people go through stages Gaerte used to be the motor to have now its ott, kistler, shaver and a few others. These are all great motors its all in the setup. All I can say is that Shaver has the throne for about another week or so then its back up in the air.....Can he pull off a 5 peat? VERY VERY POSSIBLE. Shaver will be over at Schatz's camp all week long tweaking that baby getting every inch of power out of that motor. The guy is really nice and he is always helping out on Donny's motor when I see him at the Nationals. I dont exactly love schatz but I have great respect for the guy building his motors.