How to start a 2,000+ horsepower engine…

Maybe you’ve lost little sleep in worry over this – it is a dimension of drag racing has been an enduring fascination to me.

It ought to be said first, that a race car is built to be an object compelling to the eye. A sleek, low profile is pragmatic to reduce drag, allowing more force to accelerate the car forward. According to my taste the profile of the body, the slight angle to hug the track is a beautiful thing. There’s no need to mention the blend of color, demonstrating the expert ability of someone’s contribution with a paint gun. The outsized rear slicks are a clue to the level of power delivered by the drive train to the asphalt track, power that is absorbed initially by the flexing rubber sidewalls. The look of a pro-modified race car is awe inspiring.

There’s another dimension which provokes me to speechless delight. Words barely describe the sound of a big displacement methanol fueled motor, several rotations of the pistons, the high capacity magneto delivering spark and the engine comes alive with a roar, and begins a ragged, loping idle.

It’s as if an animal, a beast is born with timely prompting from the crew chief, and the driver pushes the start button to rotate the crank and pistons.

There’s a knack to firing a methanol engine, an imperative step that’s never neglected. A spritz of gasoline is sprayed into the open injector butterfly. The primer of gasoline provides vaporization at a lower temperature, promptly igniting to spin the pistons, to allow the methanol vapors subsequently to catch fire and the machine roars to life. I have observed this process (a ritual) over and over, with a thrill every time! There’s is a science to using methanol fuel. CLICK HERE 

A primer of gasoline gives that essential “kick” allowing the engine to idle up as it was built to do. Listening to a well tuned engine is pure delight. I think the shock of the more volatile gasoline is analogous to the unanticipated disruptions which we all encounter so often. Change to my schedule, unanticipated demands on my time – could be interpreted as stimuli to awaken me, to prod me to see things differently. Often a good jolt is just what is called for.

And the magic happens! Sometimes… There can be no guarantee.

A race car is “animal-like”, untamed, undomesticated, and the track well, – that’s ridiculously slippery at 2,000+ horsepower…