Modern sprint cars are simple and brutally powerful. There is no dead
weight on the car; if a part doesn't contribute to the car's performance,
it is left off. The chassis is a minimal tube frame with a short 84-inch
wheelbase. The suspension, deliberately crude by modern standards, consists
of a live axle in the rear and a dead axle up front, and torsion bars for
springs. A V8 engine, fueled by methanol, is connected to the quick-change
rear axle by a coupler called an "in-out box". There's no starter motor,
Two huge floppy rear tires of different sizes couple the irresistible force
to the soft clay below. The driver sits atop the rear axle, his legs straddling
the driveshaft.
With a power-to-weight ratio comparable to a Formula 1 racer's, and
a short, tippy frame, a sprint car spends most of its time scrabbling for
traction, broadsliding around the corners, wheelstanding on the straights,
and throwing clay into the stands, while the driver wrestles frantically
with the steering wheel. |