On the scene at World of Speed 2011

[Milwaukee Midget]

I think Tony was out there in '09 with the Monte - I'm pretty sure I met him.

Take it from me, Wisconsin is a L O N G drive home with a nonfunctional car in tow. 

[RayTheRat]

Ray, try and run that one broken stud out and insert a bolt for some piece of mind!

And looking at your tranny, the way the YOKE sheard off I would look at someone like Mark Williams for some better strength stuff.

I'll fix the water pump/pulley studs in the ayem.  I'm home, kept the shiny side up and didn't break anything else along the way (minor miracle.)

I'm considering a Buick GN 8.5" rear end.  They have a better stock ratio (3.42 vs the Monte's 3.73) and are a h*ll of a lot stronger.  That's where the break started.  I just don't have a photo of it yet.

But first, I'm gonna get some laundry into the washer, then sleep....well, maybe I'll do a coupla other things while the wash is doing its thing.

[RayTheRat]

I think Tony was out there in '09 with the Monte - I'm pretty sure I met him.

Take it from me, Wisconsin is a L O N G drive home with a nonfunctional car in tow. 

He was there last year, too, I bleeve.  I think they got a real good deal on renting a truck and trailer.  At least that was the idea when I left. 

I unnerstand about long tows.  Last time I did it was 2200 miles flat towing a 68 Nova with a 74 Nova.  Never again.  Never.

[Elmo Rodge]

Ray, I saw you but never got a chance to say "HI". The last time I saw Sparky I was pushing him off the course a little further for safety until Skip got to him. I had the honor of being "short course" (which was the first 3 miles of the long course) roving patrol just like last year. While I got to see an awful lot of runs, I didn't get much time for goofing around in the pits. If you could have heard me cheering on the Landracing.com participants from the confines of my pickemup, you would have been pleased.  Wayno

[Dakin Engineering]

Was anybody stranded in Impound?

Our last pass was too close to making a re-buildable into a core.

Caught up with the same storm at Rawlins; rain and pea hail changed over to rain/snow mix.
Sunshine 20 miles later....

Thanks to Slim and all them USFRA vols.
Great party, good show!

Sam &
Team Graybeards
#6062

[Milwaukee Midget]

Ray -

Sorry to hear about your calamity, but it has given me pause for thought.  Even with a loop, that's a lot of damage.

The one component in my drive train I hadn't even given a thought to was the driveshaft.

I'm running 4.22's, and I'd hate to see what might happen if it were to cut loose at 7G.

It'll be going in for a balance job, at a minimum.

Have fun at the Shoot Out.

And again, as always, great photojournalism! 

[hotrod]

That caught my eye too, due to where/how it broke the loop did not do a lot of good. Might be good practice to have a second loop a bit farther back from the tail shaft of the tranny.

Larry

[maguromic]

I have used Dynotech drive shafts without any issues on many of the race cars I have worked on.  They are the only ones that I have found that can keep to my specifications and tolerances and tightly hold drive shaft runout.  http://www.dynotecheng.com  Very few shops will balance drive shafts properly for race cars. Just ask them how tightly they hold the balance specifications or what the runout of the shaft is, and you will have the answer to do business with them or not.  Speed is all about maximizing all the parts of the race car. Tony

[Buickguy3]

   The Salt Cat Team would really like to thank Stainless and Speed Limit 1000 for their help in Impound. They loaned us their spare fire bottle after I touched the one in the engine compartment off after smoke started to fill the cockpit at the end of our 216 MPH run. Turned out to be cooling water that escaped after we killed the now infamous "Henry" 16 port head. Couldn't back up the record, but had to be satisfied with 1 1/2 records, and a red hat. All in all a great meet and a great time. We'll be back for World Finals after we repair the damage. Once again "Thanks" guys, your help was much appreciated.
   Doug 

[RayTheRat]

Ray, I saw you but never got a chance to say "HI". The last time I saw Sparky I was pushing him off the course a little further for safety until Skip got to him. I had the honor of being "short course" (which was the first 3 miles of the long course) roving patrol just like last year. While I got to see an awful lot of runs, I didn't get much time for goofing around in the pits. If you could have heard me cheering on the Landracing.com participants from the confines of my pickemup, you would have been pleased.   Wayno

Wayno, I saw ya at Salt Talks...but it was brief...pretty much like every conversation I had with everyone else.  Things seemed go by in a whirl from the moment I got back from BUB.  Anyway, it was good to see ya and I'll catch ya next time.  Btw, I found a car that looks a whole lot like yer avatar.  It's the Daimler (Mercedes Benz) F125 concocted to celebrate Daimler-Benz's 125th anniversary.  I think you might see a little resemblance.  

[RayTheRat]

Ray -

Sorry to hear about your calamity, but it has given me pause for thought.  Even with a loop, that's a lot of damage.

The one component in my drive train I hadn't even given a thought to was the driveshaft.

I'm running 4.22's, and I'd hate to see what might happen if it were to cut loose at 7G.

It'll be going in for a balance job, at a minimum.

Have fun at the Shoot Out.

And again, as always, great photojournalism! 

Thanks for the good words, Cap'n.  They're very much appreciated. 

I've been thinkin about this driveshaft deal and while the loop did what it was intended to do, it didn't minimize the carnage much.  I knew that the driveshaft speed might be an issue cuz I have a 0.666 overdrive in the transmission which brought up the speed of the tailshaft, driveshaft and pinion.  I was more worried about it at higher speeds (near 200 mph would have had the shaft spinning near 10,000 RPM) but it seems that even 6000 RPM shaft speed was sufficient to create significant havoc.  I spose if the shaft had dropped the nose, punched thru the floor pan or tunnel and tried to jump inside with me, it would have been a whole lot more exciting...and I had plenty of excitement at it was...  So, Bill Ward and I discussed using a 58-74 Chevy truck 2-piece driveshaft (or any other shaft with a center support bearing) with an additional crossmember where the center support bearing is located.  Denny's (the manufacturer of the twisted soda straw that's stowed in the back of the Monte Carlo) sells 'em...but they sure ain't cheap: $700-$1000.  I think I'll send 'em a picture of mine with their logo prominently displayed and see if they wanna discuss replacement.  See the attached photo.

The other thing I've been thinking about is a rear driveshaft loop.  Some thought would have to go into it regarding rear axle movement, but it could still be done...and might not be a bad idea.

Finally, I'll be heading back to the salt this afternoon.  I'll have something on the FIA meeting booze 'n schmooze later tonite.

[Elmo Rodge]

Ray, that is quite a grin on that F125.  Wayno

[JamesJ]

Not to get to much off topic but...

This is who we use, never had a problem.  They are very reasonable as well, and they are good.

http://www.driveshaftshop.com/

[salt27]

Ray,
In my opinion the addition of a rear hoop is a good idea and not uncommon.
The rear hoop just needs to be oval shaped to accommodate differential travel.
I do not care for two piece drive lines unless the legnth of the wheel base makes them necessary.
They add more parts that could fail and two drive shafts that should have hoops.

Just my 2 cents, Don

[Peter Jack]

Ray, in other forms of motorsport the two hoop system is quite common and it works, but only to help minimize the damage. Those pesky little critters are pretty lively when they start to get free.

I don't like two piece driveshafts because there's a lot more to go wrong, they require more hoops, and their reliability record is much poorer than a single length. The way to solve the problem is to use good, heavy duty parts and a larger diameter tube with a first rate balance job. The larger diameter is way stronger. Serious road race and oval cars use a minimum of 3" and some serious competition trucks go up to 5" or more. The straightness and balance are very important.

Try Googleing "racing drive shaft" and you'll find lots of qualified suppliers for both the heavy duty parts and the shafts themselves.

Pete