Someone tell me if I’m wrong, but I not sure if it is worth it to cut the crank weight for drag racing applications. I don’t question whether the engine will “Rev†quicker while the car is in neutral. It may help in very light cars in road course racing. Let assume we are talking about drag racing. For argument sake, assuming a standard transmission, once the clutch is engaged, the engine and the car become one. So, for the basic equation of F=ma, the rotational mass of the crank, flywheel, trans gears, etc., are added to the mass of the car. So, with this reasoning, it may be just as easy to remove some mass (weight) off the car. Now if every possible pound has been removed from the car, then maybe cutting some 10-20lbs off the crankshaft may be worth the effort. If we are on the subject of cutting rotational mass, then we could look at the crank pulley, flywheel, clutch/pressure plate, type of transmission, driveshaft/yoke sizes. Also, the 9†isn’t the most efficient rear end out there.
Along these same lines, this shows how much losses can be present in heavy transmissions, like the C6 or Turbo400. There is a lot of rotational mass along with the powers losses of driving the pump, etc.
In the past, I have heard of people lightening their fly wheel by removing a lot of metal off a STOCK flywheel and I would ask them how much they value their feet, especially when I hear they are not even using a scatter shield.
Also, it could be argued that the extra mass of the crank will store some extra energy, while the engine is “Revved†up, which would help lower the 60ft time with a standard trans while drag racing.
Just some thoughts
IMO
Mark
