Making power isn’t about silver bullets—it’s about putting together a system that works efficiently. While trick parts and the right amount of money can really help build power, there are also free or nearly free ways to pick up power no matter what’s under the hood.
These tips can help just about every kind of enthusiast. Do you compete under …
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In reply to Carl Heideman :
Remove weight. Spares tools, junk, dirt, including in the radiator fins and trash between A/C and radiator, under the body, fender wells, grease and dirt around the suspension. Between the body and frame.
parker
Reader
2/9/22 10:45 a.m.
adam525i said:
In reply to frenchyd :
and around your waist!
This. People will obsess trying to remove weight from the car while the driver is carrying an extra 20, 50 or 100 pounds.
Last time I was out at a track I frequent a few times a year, I played with shifting less. Mostly due to the shifts happening while there was some lateral load, which wasn't working well as I need new engine mounts. It sounded and felt much slower, but I gained a full second on a fairly solid and consistent time just by shifting less. Playing around with shifting less can lead to real gains, at least on a "normal" manual trans.
Tom1200
UltraDork
2/9/22 11:53 a.m.
spedracer said:
Last time I was out at a track I frequent a few times a year, I played with shifting less. Mostly due to the shifts happening while there was some lateral load, which wasn't working well as I need new engine mounts. It sounded and felt much slower, but I gained a full second on a fairly solid and consistent time just by shifting less. Playing around with shifting less can lead to real gains, at least on a "normal" manual trans.
For 3-4 seasons I ran a close ratio gearbox in the Datsun but the only one available is fragile and I repeatedly had issues.
A friend gave me a street gearbox the 2nd - 3rd shift see a 2850 RPM drop, so I started running only 3rd and 4th gear.
Well I went 4 tenths faster than I ever had. It's a combination of 2 fewer upshifts per lap and rolling the hairpin turn.
adam525i said:
In reply to frenchyd :
and around your waist!
Right On! I needed a new battery for the FR-S I track and figured I'd buy an Anti-Gravity battery. That is, until I found they cost a ton. I figured that I could lose some weight by eating less, come in at about the same overall car weight and save money.
Now, I'll have to look into the shifting less tactic. Not sure that works on an FR-S with no torque to help, but maybe?
In reply to parker :
Actually people need to add more weight to their cars and karts to accommodate for us fat people lolz. We live in America not Europe.
trigun7469 said:
In reply to parker :
Actually people need to add more weight to their cars and karts to accommodate for us fat people lolz. We live in America not Europe.
No...........those of us who are skinny got way to much crap about it as teenagers and are exacting our revenge via car racing.
adam525i said:
In reply to frenchyd :
and around your waist!
You are right, I'm guilty as charged. Yet I'll continue taking weight off the race car.
Tom1200 said:
trigun7469 said:
In reply to parker :
Actually people need to add more weight to their cars and karts to accommodate for us fat people lolz. We live in America not Europe.
No...........those of us who are skinny got way to much crap about it as teenagers and are exacting our revenge via car racing.
Amen! I was a skinny 5'8" kid playing football on the line. Effective. But I took more crap because of my lack of weight.
Two tours in Vietnam and I didn't gain a pound.
In Vintage racing they weigh the car with the driver.
frenchyd said:
adam525i said:
In reply to frenchyd :
and around your waist!
You are right, I'm guilty as charged. Yet I'll continue taking weight off the race car.
I'm just as guilty, that wasn't pointed at you just in general 
In reply to adam525i :that's the nice thing about GRM
Very few mean spirited people here
frenchyd said:
Tom1200 said:
trigun7469 said:
In reply to parker :
Actually people need to add more weight to their cars and karts to accommodate for us fat people lolz. We live in America not Europe.
No...........those of us who are skinny got way to much crap about it as teenagers and are exacting our revenge via car racing.
Amen! I was a skinny 5'8" kid playing football on the line. Effective. But I took more crap because of my lack of weight.
Two tours in Vietnam and I didn't gain a pound.
In Vintage racing they weigh the car with the driver.
Yup. However, I'd rather have the weight in the floor than up where the driver is. I've also noticed that I can stay focused longer when I've been doing all the healthy things that my wife and my doctors tell me I should be doing. Apparently feeling better and living longer isn't motivating for me but being faster in the race car is...
In reply to APEowner :
You are right,•••• grrrr! But in my case my weight gain is concentrated around my waist line. That's not far off the floor of the car. Even my butt is modest.
I know the source of my weight gain. It's from caffeine. But I hate coffee. I've had maybe 2 cups in my life.
Like most people I need caffeine to stimulate me into action. So the replacement is caffeinated beverage. Mountain Dew, nope I won't drink diet because the first three letters of the word diet says it all. So I drink the leaded stuff.
If I can eliminate the Dew I'd lose maybe 60-80 pounds. In the mean time I'll be busy working on getting undercoating and excess metal off and out of the car.
I know that the driver weight loss thing was said partially in jest, but I really think physical conditioning is a huge speed tool and could have easily been included in the article in the OP.
Yes, the car/driver combo is lighter when the driver loses weight. And yes, the weight is lost from higher in the car which has further benefits. But we often overlook how physically demanding racing a car is, and how real the effects of physical conditioning are. In the last year I've lost over 40 pounds but I also started running and working out more frequently. Before I got into shape it was very hard to stay focused in the later laps of a race, especially on hot days. Managing through that much discomfort was distracting. In amateur racing a lot of passes are made simply because one driver made a mistake- especially in spec racing. Now that I'm better conditioned I drive more consistently, make fewer mistakes, etc. This year I've really adopted the mindset that auto racing is an athletic endeavor and if I want to be a competitive racer I need to condition myself like a competitive athlete. Every rule has exceptions and there are plenty of guys in poor physical shape that are faster than me, but most of the guys you see on the podium at all levels of racing are in excellent physical shape.
As a related aside- last race weekend I did, my buddy forgot to take off his Apple Watch before the race. That night we were looking at it, and his heart rate was 170-180bpm the entire race, every race. I would have to run sustained 7 minute miles to keep my heart rate in that range.
Tom1200 said:
spedracer said:
Last time I was out at a track I frequent a few times a year, I played with shifting less. Mostly due to the shifts happening while there was some lateral load, which wasn't working well as I need new engine mounts. It sounded and felt much slower, but I gained a full second on a fairly solid and consistent time just by shifting less. Playing around with shifting less can lead to real gains, at least on a "normal" manual trans.
For 3-4 seasons I ran a close ratio gearbox in the Datsun but the only one available is fragile and I repeatedly had issues.
A friend gave me a street gearbox the 2nd - 3rd shift see a 2850 RPM drop, so I started running only 3rd and 4th gear.
Well I went 4 tenths faster than I ever had. It's a combination of 2 fewer upshifts per lap and rolling the hairpin turn.
To properly use a close ratio gearbox you need an engine that is cammed to develop peak power in a tiny range. IE higher lift, more duration. Then you need a track that uses tight corners followed by long straights. The transmission also has to not have syncro's so shifts don't require the seconds a clutch and syncro's require.
Further it helps if geography of the track is hilly. That way some corners can require different gears.
My Black Jack Special had a Seinz and a Halibrand which gave me hundreds of possibilities and took very little time to change.
It helped that I had an accurate barometer. So as air density changed I knew how to adjust for that too. Which sometimes required a whole different set of gears.
ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) said:
I know that the driver weight loss thing was said partially in jest, but I really think physical conditioning is a huge speed tool and could have easily been included in the article in the OP.
Yes, the car/driver combo is lighter when the driver loses weight. And yes, the weight is lost from higher in the car which has further benefits. But we often overlook how physically demanding racing a car is, and how real the effects of physical conditioning are. In the last year I've lost over 40 pounds but I also started running and working out more frequently. Before I got into shape it was very hard to stay focused in the later laps of a race, especially on hot days. Managing through that much discomfort was distracting. In amateur racing a lot of passes are made simply because one driver made a mistake- especially in spec racing. Now that I'm better conditioned I drive more consistently, make fewer mistakes, etc. This year I've really adopted the mindset that auto racing is an athletic endeavor and if I want to be a competitive racer I need to condition myself like a competitive athlete. Every rule has exceptions and there are plenty of guys in poor physical shape that are faster than me, but most of the guys you see on the podium at all levels of racing are in excellent physical shape.
As a related aside- last race weekend I did, my buddy forgot to take off his Apple Watch before the race. That night we were looking at it, and his heart rate was 170-180bpm the entire race, every race. I would have to run sustained 7 minute miles to keep my heart rate in that range.
Interesting. Dale Earnhardt's heart rate was astonishingly slow and low sitting on the pre grid waiting for the start engines call.
I never checked mine but it was common for me to fall asleep on the pre grid and be awaikin by engines firing.
When I was a dedicated long distance runner, my resting heart rate in the mornings was 36. I had the capability of a peak heartrate in excess of 180. Even with that level of fitness, the challenge of North Carolina summer heat combined with drivers suit and nomex long johns made for a challenging environment. Today at the age of 70 with a much higher resting heart rate and a much lower heat tolerance, surviving a long stint in a drivers suit would be impossible without some serious weight loss. At that time when I was running, I was around 170 lbs give or take. Today I am a bit under 240 and the difference it makes is striking. Of course the age difference is a factor too, but its mostly weight and fitness. I couldn't drive an endurance race today if I wanted to, in my younger days I could have but there weren't the opportunities to do so then. Honestly, I don't know how people afford a full send racing effort today, I do well to get a track day or two a year.
In reply to frenchyd :
Not sure if you are kidding about the caffeine....
It has no weight gain effect.
The sugar in mountain dew and similar soft drinks is the culprit.
Related: coffee drinkers have lower risk of diabetes. Soda drinkers have higher risk. Obesity, particularly that correlated with high carbohydrate intake, is highly correlated with dyslipidemia, hypertension, diabetes, and, alas, Alzheimer's dementia.
One last thought.
Patients often ask about their "ideal weight". A good first guess, assuming no obesity in childhood, is your weight upon graduating high school. Not engraved in stone, but often valid.
DavyZ
New Reader
9/19/23 3:18 p.m.
Why didn't anyone mention removing the 100-300 lbs of dead weight sitting in the passenger seat? 
Tom1200
PowerDork
9/19/23 4:28 p.m.
Since this has poped back up and I missed a few comments originally:
On a personal level.................mmm I weighed 92lbs when I graduated HS; I was reeeally skinny then.
As for getting in shape; I'm almost 61 and I see a cardiologist as part of my annual check ups. He cautioned me about training so hard that you redline your heart constantly. He told me to keep it around 140bpm.............just thought I'd pass that along.
I get 15 minutes of cardio midday and then 20 minutes after work.
Tom1200 said:
Since this has poped back up and I missed a few comments originally:
On a personal level.................mmm I weighed 92lbs when I graduated HS; I was reeeally skinny then.
As for getting in shape; I'm almost 61 and I see a cardiologist as part of my annual check ups. He cautioned me about training so hard that you redline your heart constantly. He told me to keep it around 140bpm.............just thought I'd pass that along.
I get 15 minutes of cardio midday and then 20 minutes after work.
just for anecdotal grins, at 5'9" i weighed 126 at HS graduation, i'm still 5'9" but weigh 180 now. i quit running when i started building MonZora, and am now getting back into it. I'm 56. Rule of thumb 220-age says my max HR should be 164. i regularly hold an average of 155-160 for an hour, and see peaks in the mid-170s.
Change your oil and shed body weight.
Man, did I ever get trolled by a "gatekeeper" over on that Miata forum that I rarely visit anymore because I mentioned that the stopwatch doesn't care if the weight comes off of the car or off of the driver.
In a nutshell:
"You're fat shaming people!!"
"No, I'm not, it's just a simple statement and wasn't directed at any particular person."
"I know your intent!!"
And on and on he went, all by himself.
So glad for this site, the people who maintain it, and for those who participate on it.
