Thread: Effect of weight on 1/4 mile times

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Me and my wallet have found out lately that it is not just h.p./torque, but a particular combo that gets the car dialed in. The guy that gets his car on a chassis dyno, and spends the time and money to get the car set up right, should have an advantage. Proper tire size/axle ratio, tuning, and a torque converter that allows one to launch at peak torque wins races. Power to weight ratio is very important, but only a starting place when getting a car to run well.

I read something years ago regarding making a car lighter that always stuck with me. It said "instead of looking for one place to eliminate 1000 pounds, find 1,000 items that weigh 1 pound and eliminate those." There are a lot of things on a car that aren't needed on a drag car, so if you find enough of those little items (window winders, wiper motors, dash brackets, dome lights, etc.) you can make a real difference in the overall weight. There are ALWAYS unnecessary parts you can remove if you look hard enough. (and putting the skinniest driver in there doesn't hurt either )

Don