Originally Posted by Cincy Dirt Bowl:
I watched a couple heats, and what I took from it was that the engines are the problem. Even the cars that were running out front had some sickness in their engines. I think the engine rules need to be updated. Your running engines from the 1970's, and it is lots of work and money to cut a transmission off a motor that was designed to have a trans. Why do you have to conect right to the crank shaft?
If only the rule about having to go direct to the crankshaft were changed the entire world of TQ racing would benfit. Heres why. - The engines could be bought at a fraction of the cost TQ racers are spending now. You can get a complete engine kit for less than one of those down draft heads cost. (There are 2 2007Kaw 636s on E-bay right now for $650 buy it now) All you would need is to have the wiring harness cut (Jeff Barker $175) and a drive shaft coupler like mod lites, dwarf cars, and legend cars run. You can still run a drive shaft through the drivers legs, and to the quick change. You wouldn't need four wheelers anymore because now you would have a clutch and on board starters. Think about how much time it would save to be able to have all the cars start up and take off by them self. Plus not having to buy a 4-wheeler.
Look how many mini-sprints had motor problems. Very few.
If you could run a stock engine with the trans, you would see the engine problems go away and a whole lot more of the cars finishing the race. I think the TQ series up east runs engines like these and they are offset so that the drive shaft runs outside the car. Plus they some how have the rules to where 600 mini-sprints can run with them and that helps car count. I don't own a TQ, but if this rule was changed I would! I bet a bunch more people would also.
First let me say, thanks for your input, I'd like to comment on your type of car, if I may, and that is the wing, which as I've been reading on here, several want to run without, which would be of interest to me, but, back to the engines, the car that won, was running a 600cc Kawasaki, the one that finished 5th, a 600cc Yamaha, the black 55, a 600cc Suzuki, and the car was jumping out of gear, was the reason he pulled in. I personally don't know of any engine failures, most dropouts were for other reasons, I don't, and never have felt, that bigger tracks are harder on engines, if we were to run, say 100 lap races, maybe. One other reason this split has occured is, the original organization was wanting to ban the new engines, and make it a Honda 836 only club, those of us that were branching out, into new technology, would have been left with no where to go. We run what we run, mostly by choice, and if the decision had been made to change everything, now would have been a poor time. Somewhere down the road, someone may decide to go to a out of bike motor, but not right away, we'll see how you get along with your non-wing efforts, and continue to feel out the prospects. Yes, hands down, the new tech engines are cheaper, no special aftermarket parts needed, just buy it, and run it, my Yamaha, a 2000 YZF600R, bought from Ebay, as parts from several engines, was never intended to race, only as a dummy, to see how much was required to change on the chassis, to make it usable, it was installed in Sept of 05, won it's first night heat race, and hasn't been out since, it has over 80 nights of racing on it, and very little done to the "parts" engine, oil changes, and I treat it to a new set of plugs every year. Time will tell, but in the meantime, I imagine we'll keep it pretty much like it is. As for the track size, we ran almost the same gear, that we run at Bloomington and Vernon, and by the way, was that track smooth, or was it smooth? Great job, Dave and crew, we won't be concerned about a return visit. Thanks! Bob McClure
