I come from a family of teachers, so I suppose it was
inevitable that I would end up standing in front of a
classroom. My father lectured on economics, but my
specialty is racing engines. I thought I knew that
subject well - until my students asked questions that I
couldn't answer!
This year
we've hosted a series of Reher-Morrison Racing Engine
Schools at our shop in Arlington, Texas. It's rare to
have a weekend when Bruce Allen and I aren't racing or
testing our Pro Stock Firebird, but I've found myself
looking forward to the classroom sessions. A recent
group of students who came for a two-day class was
really into internal combustion, and their enthusiasm
renewed my interest in parts and pieces that I've worked
with for years.
During a
Q&A session at the end of the day, I found myself
asking more questions than giving answers. When a
student asked me about the best intake runner volume or
the right camshaft profile for a particular engine, my
reply usually began with the words, "Well, it all
depends . . ."
Later I
realized that there are no simple answers in racing. Why
do we use heads with |
360cc intake runners on a
522ci Super Series bracket big-block and heads with
500cc runners on our 500ci Pro Stock motors? The two
engines have similar displacements, but their operating
ranges, power curves, construction costs, and
maintenance requirements are radically different. Those
differences affect virtually every part of the engine
combination, from the oil system to the carburetor.
Mathematicians and physicists have developed a way to
look at complex systems called the Chaos Theory. The
Chaos Theory states that even tiny changes in input in a
complex system can produce huge differences in the final
results. The notion that chaos is a fundamental force in
the way the world operates explains phenomena ranging
from global weather patterns and stock market prices to
the random dripping of a leaky faucet.
I'll cite the
example of the Butterfly Effect, and then I'll bring
this column back to drag racing. Suppose a butterfly in
China flaps its wings, creating a small eddy in the air.
Over time, that eddy may develop into a tornado that
levels a city in Indonesia. Or the butterfly's wings may
have disrupted an air current that otherwise would have
grown into a hurricane in Hawaii. |
