Recent content by paul_c

2CV was named after 2 horsepower. A French horsepower had the abbreviation CV (from chevaux), except that its equivalent to 8bhp or something. Its to do with the era when French cars were taxed on their horsepower figure. Citroen produced (I think) the first FWD car, the Traction Avant, back...

Yep, pretty much agree. I'm no way near 10s, or 11s for that matter. Once you're getting into that kind of performance (which is well away from most roadcar stuff) you're getting the front wheels into the air. I guess I'm just hung up on cute little Mk1 Golfs, or something.....

I suppose it depends on the power, vs the extra weight carried by the propshaft, diff, and the weight distribution front wheels/rear wheels. I've seen small/light cars converted from FWD to RWD and because there's so little weight over the rear wheels, struggle to put the power down...

Methanol burns to form water and carbon dioxide, just like petrol does. Formaldehyde and formic acid are by-products of incomplete combustion, I believe? Anyway, I'm put off by nitromethane because it produces really irritant exhaust fumes, so in practical terms I'd have issues running and...

If one was building a dedicated drag racing car (ie not too worried about on the road performance) and was seeking to achieve good power without having to resort to supercharger, and already has NOS..... What would be involved in building the car for running on methanol? Typically what...

Not completely pointless..... FWD is a neat packaging arrangement, and means there's no (extra weight) of propshaft, differential casing, etc, so on a lowish power car, the weight saving more than outweighs the lack of traction. And its really only at launch, or very high power, where this...

VW Golf Mk1 with 2 litre 16V. Its stripped to save weight (but still has glass in, remains road legal, etc). Yesterday I bettered my PB, by running 14.15.

Worst crash I've seen is a Top Fueller flip up at the front end at the finish line. The resulting accident sequence split the car in half and the engine ended up tumbling over the safety wall. Luckily the safety kit did its job and the driver (Barry Sheavills) was unhurt - bit shaken up though...

My first 1/4 mile time was something like 15.6 secs (on a damp track too), that day I got my time down to 14.845. This was at Bruntingthorpe proving ground. Next time out at Santa Pod I got the car down to 14.40.

......very carefully! I have a VW Golf Mk1, obviously its FWD and applying full throttle, even from launching at idle rpm, will spin the wheels. So its a tricky balancing act to choose and hold the optimum launch rpm, then gradually apply the throttle (if I launched, clutch fully in, then...