Launching question....

[66SportFury]

I've been racing since I was a kid back in the 80s with basically stock motors and transmissions all in Mopars. My 66 Sport Fury is not stock. Original 440 is worked and the trans came from and was built by Dynamicconverters transmission in Delaware.It's a Street/Strip. Converter, 9 ½" Race/ Street 3500 stall.

My my question is, when I launch the car, should I bring up the RPMs to say 2000/2500 or should it just let it idle and when the light turns green just launch it that way? I've heard mixed responses from different racers about this. What do you guys think!
Thank you,

John

 

[BIGBARNEYCARS]

Personally I'd play with the RPMs 'til you find the sweet spot between havin 'um bite and throwin' little marblez out the back and goin' nowhere. If you're just gonna nail it from Idle you're almost assured you're gonna smoke 'um. BTW, If you have not converted your fronts to disc's yet I'd think seriously about doin' it. It's much easier to power launch 'cuz it won't take you more then ah couple times and you'll know what the right RPM iz to not break the drive tirez loose! (the disc's will out hold the drumz every time) And stay out of the water pit 'til you figure out what you're doin' 'less you're lookin' for somethin' lower then 10's! If I remember rite that'z where the break iz for requirin' ah cage. Jer

 

[66SportFury]

Thank you and sorry, I should have gave more info on the car. It's converted to disc brakes and is electric vacuum pumped. It also has Nitto drag radials, 355s out back. I also ordered a roll control for it, not that it needs it, because I can brake it up to around 2500 to 2800 without it seeming to roll. LOL, no the car won't be doing 10s. We calculated it to be in the low to mid 12s. I wish it was a 10 second car!! I'm not use to having a high stall converter. Never had one in any of my cars before, so it's all new to me, but I'm liking it so far. As for not going into the water, yeah I'm good with that as I drive around it, then back into it, the up a few feet and do the 4/5 second burnout to get the tires sticky.

 

[C Body Bob]

I would try 1800 then 2000 etc & see how it effects your 60 ft. You usually need to get the slack out of the suspension & get up on the cam some. I just put a 3K stall in mine & yes its a blast!!!

 

[70bigblockdodge]

Test and write it down my guess is loading the suspention will be best, snap from idle may shock parts / break parts, waste time winding suspension parts instead of forward motion.

 

[Mr C]

My best results have been with walking out of the hole before punching it...otherwise you'll boil the tires and go nowhere fast. This is especially true of a C body that has a lot of inertia to overcome...you've got one of the best C bodies to drag race with as the 66 Fury were among the smallest C bodies made (only a little bigger than a 68-70 B body).

 

[66SportFury]

I appreciate all the help guys. I was also leaning towards loading it at around 2000 or less. I will write down each pass to see how it responds to different RPM launches. I'm not going to just whack it out of the hole, I think I'll break something going that route. I don't want to beat on it as I just want to run it a few times to get a base on it.

 

[C Body Bob]

Temp will affect your 60 also. As does staging. Keep records of temp, humidity & tire psi. Always try to stage car the same or your data is useless. And for what is worth ....I have always heard that cars with street tires should avoid the water box regardless of burnout length.

 

[Big_John]

It really all depends on the suspension, track, convertor, tires, etc....

We adjusted for conditions, but pretty much launched somewhere between 1000 to 2500 RPM.





In bracket race trim with some sandbagging going on...

 

[tallhair]

Looks like a great car John.

What years are those photo's from?

 

[Big_John]

mid to late '70s

 

[tallhair]

mid to late '70s

Do you still have it and was / is it an A12 car? Very cool either way

 

[Big_John]

Do you still have it and was / is it an A12 car? Very cool either way

It was a clone back before we called them "clones".

I sold it in 1984 just after I got married the first time... Used the money for a down payment on the house I still live in.

Last I heard, it was in a warehouse somewhere on the north side of Syracuse.

 

[tallhair]

Thanks for sharing. I'm sure it was a blast

 

[Big_John]

Thanks for sharing. I'm sure it was a blast

I had a lot of fun racing and met a lot of really great people and made some life long friends. It was a great experience for me.

 

[1hotplymouth]

i load mine up to 2800 and roll in then let it drop back to idle about 1200 then hit it when last yellow comes on and it flashes to 32 for a nice launch if tires hook should have a good launch

 

[66SportFury]

Again, thanks for all the good advice. It's going to be fun running the Fury. Been a long time!

 

[66SportFury]

Big John, cool car. What was it running? Big Block car?