The importance of rotational inertia in Stock Car racing. (Even Street Stocks)

We have a majority of our business from people who are striving to learn. None of us are born knowing everything, so we have to rely either on our ability to ask questions and learn. One of the things that I have learned over the years is the value of reducing reciprocating weight (rotational inertia) in the drive line. I have expressed this at times to individuals and usually they scoff at the idea if they are just starting out or are in some of the heavier classes of racing.

I had heard trinkets of information while just getting going in my racing career and tried to learn what I could about the subject. Removing engine weight at the crankshaft area has 15 times the benefit of just taking weight off the car. Removing rotational weight from the axle area has 3 times the benefit of taking weight just off the car. I learned the specifics of this from a book by Herb Adams called Chassis Engineering.

There is a chart in Herbs book that goes into great detail about the benefits. Herbs book is available through our store at http://www.racingpartsales.com/ in the books section.

Many of his teachings I applied to my very first race cars and to the later ones too! I am including a link below to a short movie of our number 02 factory stock. I wont go into all of the details of everything we had done, but I can say it was a totally legal motor. Unmolested heads, stock carb (4412 2 barrell Holley) This motor did have a light crower crankshaft and a direct drive powerglide with a shell converter. You can see after watching for a few moments the accelleration that this engine has. This car had light rotational engine and driveline components compared to the competition. This is why I am a believer in reducing rotational weight!

Check out the black and orange 02 Nova starting in the rear driven by a 15 year old kid at the time of this filming. You can judge for yourself.