Race Day Tuning and Techniques

8:37

55:11

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The Birth of a Legend: NASCAR's Early Days and Pioneers (Bill Blair Jr's Personal Museum)

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What happens here

Bill discusses specific race-day modifications and challenges. This includes using straight-through 'Samai headers' that would turn red-hot during races, acting as a visual exhaust gas temperature (EGT) gauge. Without modern timing lights, tuning was done by ear, adjusting the distributor 'strip' until the engine sounded 'just right'. For fuel, a mix of methanol and nitro was used, which required significant carburetion adjustments. The primitive 'chassis dynamometer' involved chaining the car to a tree and running it in gear to tune the engine, while another person listened to the engine's sound.

Goal: Understand the rudimentary methods used for tuning and testing moonshine racing cars.

Tools and materials

Chain — To secure the car to the tree for testing
Distributor Strip — A movable component on the distributor used to adjust engine timing
Samai Headers — Exhaust pipes that would glow red-hot, indicating engine tuning status
Tree N/A — Used as a stationary anchor for a 'chassis dynamometer'
Methanol Fuel — Fueling the race car during tuning
Nitro — Performance additive for fuel

What they say

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there now he never heard of a chassis dno now some of the truck shops back in that period of time possibly had chassis dinos I know they did in the 50s but this is this the fix of 1947 and that's 394 the baby diap card he's got it chained to the tree it's on bare rims no rubber on them and it's he made some platforms and he's greased them and that guy there West Hedgecock has got a big oil can right there it is he's keeping those rims oil and Bub his brother gets in the car and cranks up and puts it in gear it's got two carburetors an all not off house but it's got a grand cor intake two carburetors on it and it's w held there the pedal to the floor by by bub in the car I run it wide open and my daddy is tune it by moving that stri back and forth it sounds just right to him seeing those they didn't have a timing light they had a light a simple light to let you know when the points broke and that was it and didn't even have a top dead center mark on you had to guess at it I mean I've got the engine piece to show there's no Mark for top dead center you brought it up on compression you could take spark plug out and put your finger over and then you feel it come up you know it's on top of that Center you real close so that's when you want your points to break so you you got to start somewhere and what you would normally do you took that stripped and turned it until the engine freed up and then you start turning it back retarding it till it just started to labor a little bit and that's why we tighten it down that's generally with the with the mechanical advance in that distrib that put it about right for total Advance probably about 25 de tot advance so that's how he done it but in this case what he's doing he's running It Wide Open he's moving that stri back and forth got a long screwdriver the uh distributor is in the middle of the front of the engine so you take a long screwdriver and loosen up you two bolts you can move it back and forth with a hammer and that screwdriver and that's what he's doing holding it wide open and you can hear the motor change tones as he moves that distributor he gets it where he wants it Minish then he comes out from under the hood and and Bub shut it off and they get out and they talk about it and I'll run over there and take my fingers to scrape ice off the intake cuz it's run methanol and Nitro got thing Thunders man with that nitrated probably run about 40 50% you had methanol Metro back then but no timing late that's right…

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