Well, we know teams try to take their cars to the wind tunnel every once in a blue moon since theres only 1 or 2 that can hit 300, but maybe we need to start hitting the chutes in the wind tunnel and study the behaviour of the chutes in the wind path? Maybe they SHOULD be aimed out like the force cars to catch more undisturbed air?

Lengthening the bridal (lead between the pilot and canopy) also helps get the chute out in some cases (and gets it away from wheelie bars) but the problem is the pilot drags the ground more increasing wear (much like the crescent wrench would).

As far as I know there are no Nomex (or other fire resistant chutes), only the packs are fire resistive, and the first few feet of covering over the main canopy lines, the canopies are all nylon I believe. Not sure if it's because the nomex does is too heavy, or that the air flow through them is not right, but you would think that something fire resistive could be used. Once again a good question that I would like to get more info on.

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Nemo

If any one dvr'ed Scott's Accident his chute lines got tangled in the wheelie bar and was all wrapped up. And you know the rest.

The question I have is about Chutes and Brakes is on fuel cars is ?

In a FC the Chute lever is on the body up above the head. But the brake is in the right hand as well.

Now you can all correct me if my thinking is odd. But to me when I see them pull the chutes at about 1150 or 1200 some times.. then you have to reach down and pull back on the brakes. Now if you got a Fire and you got no chutes coming out for whatever reason. Tangle. burnt off or what not. Then when are your brakes being aplied. Even tony said his hand was on fire and he had to deal with it to get the car stopped. John said the same thing and they even tried to reverse his brake lever till he figured out that don't work. Scotts fire bottle can be seen flying our from the dust when it broke off the frame and it was emptying in the air. This tells me the fire bottles was not hit.

I understand FC being a wild ride. But still why can't they put Perhaps an extra foot brake in cars ? Even TF if you watch them leave the line with above views they leave when the let go the hand brake and hit the loud peddle.

Maybe the brake peddle would be a bit further away so you don't step on it Hard when the chutes come out and mash it. Food for thought.

I also wonder if NHRA or Jim Head will put front brakes on his FC. Again I don't race fuel. so I don't know how much even MINI front brakes weight. But I bet it would make a big difference stopping these cars. And yes I know all about unsprung weight. But there is no front syspension so that should not be an issue. and with new min. weight well who cares about and extra 20 pounds if it means stopping them.

As for fire retardent chutes sure it will help. but not if they never come out. And if you recall most drivers talk about the lines getting burnt off or tangled. I also agree on air actived chutes.

Nothing is 100% but all things need to be looked into to get these car stopped.

Don't FC's still have front brakes, for burnout purposes?

I was thinking maybe TF even might should put them on. Add a few front pounds, improve braking, and shave a MPH or 2 and a couple hundreths off from the air drag.

I think your fire bottle observation is what drove them to put the extra button on troxel's wheel.

I'm not sure about the footbox, but is it even wide enough for 3 pedals? I think I even noticed that A. Johnson has a handbrake in his PS car?

Another potential issue was the brake lines melting. Maybe pinion brakes should be put on the cars that are cable activated (like an emergency brake on a street car) so they have a fail safe way to at least slow down.

Excellent discussion.

Would it make any sense at all to extend the length of the entire chute system? Perhaps get it to cleaner air? I can't even imagine what the air behind a FC going 300 would look like..gotta be ugly.

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--Medicated for your safety!!--

Brakes on all four wheels were mandated many years ago on funny cars for safety reasons.

The issue I see with front brakes on dragsters is the front tire contact patch. With those skinny wheels on the front of dragsters, I don't really see front brakes on them being particularly effective, especially at higher speeds. Might even take away some steering if they lock up. Floppers have a much larger contact patch, so front brakes make sense there. Now if the NHRA were to mandate front wheels the same size as F/Cs, it might make some sense. Sure would look "funny" though.

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AKA DrRocket

With Scott's engine explosion blowing the back half of the car facing the ground (which deployed the 'chutes) it is no wonder that they got tangled in the wheelie bars...

how about a titanium bracket that extends behind the body to hold the packs. Cables could still be attatche to the body so they would deploy if the body comes off, but it would maintain the angle of attack for the chutes even if the body is dislodged.

On the subject of braking, how about a reverse pressurized brake system (like a semi trailer, removal of pressure applies brakes). You could use a thermostatic valve(ala sprinkler system in a building) mounted between the driver and motor. In the event of an engine explosion, it would remove pressure from the system and apply some sort of braking pressure to the car. The same system could also deploy the chutes

Why not mount the chutes out on the end of the wheelie bar?

Mark

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned, but does anyone pay attention to when the chutes actually come out on these cars? To me, it looks like the PS cars have the chutes coming out as they are crossing the stripe. The fuel cars seem like they go another 1/8 mile before they come out. Since the fuel cars eat up real estate at such an incredible rate, you would think that they would have them open as they approach the sripe like the PS cars. I may be way off, it just seems that way when I watch.

I agree the PS always pull the chutes really fast. Is that the driver, or system?

The driver. I think the reason fuel cars seem to be so "delayed" is that they're going 100mph faster when the finish line camera shows them -- I think the drivers do the same thing. Del Worsham has said he pulls the chutes when he enters the speed trap at the top end, a full 60+ft before the finish.

A year or two ago some teams were having trouble with the chutes not coming out (maybe Capps) they had to reconfigure the placement in order to get it to work right

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