Thrill
Nitro Member
We ran the combo for roughly two years in Harry Clack's TAFC. Unfortunately, business trumped racing, and Harry sold the team in 2007 to open a new business venture.
We managed to run a 5.66/254 in Gainesville '07 with it, then ran some .70's in Houston with it, the last race.
Currently John Anderika and Wayne Morris in D1 run the Lencodrive combo as well. Carl Speiring and Jason Hamstra have won IHRA national events in Pro Mod with torque converters as well.
While less maintenance is certainly nice, that's not why the trans is run. It's mainly trying to harness the roughly 2:1 torque multiplication off the line. We were trying to use that to enable the car to pull a taller transmission in low gear.
You do give up some due to the fact the converter never truly goes 1:1. The converter we ran would only slip roughly 2% in high gear. It's amazing they can make converters that tight for a 3000 hp motor!
With all of that torque multiplication, it takes a different mindset than a clutch alky car. Off the line, it's closer to tuning a fuel car. We only left at 3500-4000 rpm, and had to immediately take 10-15 degrees of timing out at the hit. The trick was developing a timing curve, much like the fuel cars, then finding where and how fast to ramp the timing back to normal. Couple that with the fuel system, there's a lot of variables.
There's also the myth a converter car is easier to drive than a clutch car. Ask Mick which one is easier to drive. With the torque multiplication, the converter car is very aggressive in low gear. Also, when we got to the tighter torque converters, you couldn't short shift out of tireshake in low gear like you could a clutch car. When you short shift a clutch car, the clutch breaks free, slows the driveshaft, enabling the car to recover. Well, on a tight converter, it doesn't 'break free' like the clutch, it just grabs the motor, multiplies a little more at the shift, never allowing the tires to recover. I learned the hard way. You teach yourself to ride the shake as long as you can, then hit the button. Well, it took a couple of runs to figure out. I'd ride the shake out, finally tap out and hit the button, only to be greeted by harder shake. Your only choice then was to lift or hit high gear, and getting on high gear at 7800 doesn't do the et any favors...
The clutch combo is more forgiving. Ask Larry Snyder which is easier to tune. I don't think Snyder's switch was so much giving up on the Lencodrive/converter combo, as it was moving to a conventional combo to compete.
I still think the combination has potential, it just takes a car owner that wants the challenge of continuing the development vs. trying to be instantly competitive.
We managed to run a 5.66/254 in Gainesville '07 with it, then ran some .70's in Houston with it, the last race.
Currently John Anderika and Wayne Morris in D1 run the Lencodrive combo as well. Carl Speiring and Jason Hamstra have won IHRA national events in Pro Mod with torque converters as well.
While less maintenance is certainly nice, that's not why the trans is run. It's mainly trying to harness the roughly 2:1 torque multiplication off the line. We were trying to use that to enable the car to pull a taller transmission in low gear.
You do give up some due to the fact the converter never truly goes 1:1. The converter we ran would only slip roughly 2% in high gear. It's amazing they can make converters that tight for a 3000 hp motor!
With all of that torque multiplication, it takes a different mindset than a clutch alky car. Off the line, it's closer to tuning a fuel car. We only left at 3500-4000 rpm, and had to immediately take 10-15 degrees of timing out at the hit. The trick was developing a timing curve, much like the fuel cars, then finding where and how fast to ramp the timing back to normal. Couple that with the fuel system, there's a lot of variables.
There's also the myth a converter car is easier to drive than a clutch car. Ask Mick which one is easier to drive. With the torque multiplication, the converter car is very aggressive in low gear. Also, when we got to the tighter torque converters, you couldn't short shift out of tireshake in low gear like you could a clutch car. When you short shift a clutch car, the clutch breaks free, slows the driveshaft, enabling the car to recover. Well, on a tight converter, it doesn't 'break free' like the clutch, it just grabs the motor, multiplies a little more at the shift, never allowing the tires to recover. I learned the hard way. You teach yourself to ride the shake as long as you can, then hit the button. Well, it took a couple of runs to figure out. I'd ride the shake out, finally tap out and hit the button, only to be greeted by harder shake. Your only choice then was to lift or hit high gear, and getting on high gear at 7800 doesn't do the et any favors...
The clutch combo is more forgiving. Ask Larry Snyder which is easier to tune. I don't think Snyder's switch was so much giving up on the Lencodrive/converter combo, as it was moving to a conventional combo to compete.
I still think the combination has potential, it just takes a car owner that wants the challenge of continuing the development vs. trying to be instantly competitive.
