Reports Say NASCAR Tests Then "Confiscates" Eleven Engines for Excessive Horse Power Following Texas
Two different reports now say that NASCAR found excessive horse power in the engines of eleven cars on Sunday including those driven by Chase leader Jimmie Johnson and second place Chase driver Jeff Gordon.
The Roanoke Times says the other cars involved include those driven by Chase drivers Martin Truex Jr., Tony Stewart, Jeff Burton, and Matt Kenseth as well as those of Ryan Newman, Dave Blaney, Kasey
Kahne, Ricky Rudd and Brian Vickers.
The report at AutoRacingSport.com says the cars were all about 5% over the 750 HP limit (some where as high as 788 HP).
However, that is not a hard limit and engine horse power can change due to a variety of factors including weather, drafting and engine heat.
In the event NASCAR decides that over a quarter of the teams have replaced their watered down Sunoco gasoline with fuel from BALCO, the current Chase standings could be thrown into chaos.
If multiple teams found an "edge" that allowed them to "discover" extra horse power, the conspiracy theories will run amok within the Black Helicopter community and the debate among NASCAR fans over the definition of "cheating" will become heated and passionate.
ccr, it's okay. Michael Waltrip fuel is now legal. It has to do with global warming, Al Gore, and animal ####. Or is it that Al Gore is animal ####? I sometimes get confused. LOL
So when any of these cars make it to victorylane and pictures are takin, they will automaticly have an *aside them..like Bonds balls. So who took my can of nitro? Did anyone see witch way they went?
OK SO how do you say the engines had too much horse power? Were they dyno checked on the same Dyno? There is a way to divert this test. Blow up the engine during the victory burn outs and they have nothing to check..An easy way to have an edge.
Given my experience on engine building, the horse power ratings cn be deceiving and is a flexible factor. I would think the torque ratio might be a better factor to gauge but only in stump pulling.
Some can engineer an engine to develope more power given the engine timing and cam profiles as well as balancing the crankshaft and altering the roller rocker's ratio and STILL maintain the engines limitations on size and valve sizes per NASCAR rules..
Here again NASCAR is sqelching the creativity of engineering and research to maximize the optimum output per horse power ratios given the required limitations on sizes.
Might they just buy up a bunch of Ford Pinto and Vega 4 cylinder engines and hand them out to the teams with sealed bolts so no alterations can be made?
Why can't they just stay focused on the prescribed engine sizes, carb CFUs, and intakes?
Last edited by photogr on November 7th at 4:55 PM.
Photo, the reason why they pulled eleven engines to be put on the dyno in the first place is that NASCAR apparently has telemetry that allows them to monitor HP during the race.
In the case of the #48, he went over during his burnout.
I think we are saying the same thing when you say that HP is not the best place to get data points.
However, it is a measure that NASCAR looks at.
Last edited by ccr1d3r on November 8th at 1:35 AM.
The Black Flag is NASCAR NEXTEL Cup news, information, commentary and humor. CCR1d3r provides his irreverent, out of the box thought provoking perspective on stock car racing at the highest level.
Two different reports now say that NASCAR found excessive horse power in the engines of eleven cars on Sunday including those driven by Chase leader Jimmie Johnson and second place Chase driver Jeff Gordon.
including weather, drafting and engine heat.
