ALCOHOL
#1 Rule Bender
I was having a conversation with a customer today. It is a frequent conversation, especially with new racers. Which one is best? This time was about limit chains. Sometimes it is about pullbars, sometime it is about birdcages, sometimes it is shocks, sometimes it is rearends, springs, a arms, you get the picture. There are salesmen out there who will tell you anything you want to hear to sell you their part. Buy this shock and you will gain a half second. This new carberator will pick you up a 1/2 second. Use these balljoints and pick up 2 tenths. This pullbar is 3 tenths better than the one you have. These wheels are a tenth better than the ones you have. The point I am trying to make is, if you spend all the money on the trick pieces that they are trying to sell you, you cant make a modified run faster than a Winged sprint. Maintainence on your car, and driving experience will gain more speed than thousands of dollars of shiny, pretty, fancy new parts. Make sure the parts you have are working properly, not bent and bound up. Make sure your brakes aren't dragging, your carb is smooth and crisp. Make sure your shocks are the right valving, and have gas and oil in them. Are your balljoints straight? Are your birdcages free? Just because they have bearings in them doesn't mean they are free and the bearings are good. Are your hiems straight and free? Are your wheels all pointing in the right direction? Most importantly, make sure your tires are clean, ground, and not dried out and hard. Check your air pressure guage and verify it is accurate. Have your car set up by someone who understands how to set it up, and learn from them. There is way more to a setup than the scale weights. Scale weights are a small percentage of the setup. It (scale weights) is one of the least important parts of the setup. There was a well known racer testing a few years ago that replaced his coilover on each corner of the car with a solid rod, one corner at a time, and it supposedly only slowed the car down 2 tenths at the most on each corner. It is hard to buy race wins anymore. Too many guys have spent what it takes to be competitive. Now the driver and setup is what matters. There is no substitute for experience. You cant buy it. You can speed up the learning curve by finding someone who can help you along. Just make sure they know what they are talking about. Bad advice will slow the learning curve down. Now is the time of year to find speed. Now is the time to fix problems. Working on the car will find speed without spending money on unneeded parts. If you raced it all season, you can bet there is something bent and wore out. You wont find it if you don't take it apart. You get out of racing what you put into it. If you aren't serious about winning, don't work on it. If you want to win, the guys you are trying to beat are working on theirs. Do you want to beat them?
