[parish8]

http://www.lsxmag.com/?p=655108

this article gives a lot of information about the 8 sec fireball. I think it is great they are open with their et's and time slips.

the article states they were running low nines with a best 1.34 60' and it sounds like all stock parts in the back although I am sure they had axles and a driveshaft.

then they put on a pile of bmr stuff in hopes of improving the feel of the car and try and get into the 8's. looking at all the slips at the end of the article there new best 60' after adding the parts is 1.43 sec.

it seems like the bmr stuff hurt them a little. they are running 8's now and making a ton of power to do it. I am bringing this up because I have most of those parts sitting here not installed yet and plan on doing a 9" over the winter. I want to absolutely rip off the line.

it seems like anything that keeps the tires aligned closer to where they should be would help with the traction and the 60' time yet they ran a little slower 60' time. I am wondering if anyone has additional information that might help explain it.

[Eric SS]

The article explains why

Over the next couple of months, the Fireball crew made changes and adjustments to the car, trying to make everything work together. The massive reduction in suspension deflection meant the hit to the tires was significantly harder. With stock shocks, the car was having a hard time hooking. Although this initial outing was met with significantly more tire spin, this meant the suspension components were doing their job. It was just time to connect the rest of the dots.

[parish8]

Originally Posted by Eric SS

The article explains why

If that is the explanation it seems those parts are a waste. It sounds like they have made quite a few runs and haven't yet made it back to where they were before.

[CHFdad14]

BMR? Fireball? Can someone explain it better then the article does? Please

[Ecchi667]

The stiffer rear means there is no squat on takeoff, so the tyres are taking a harder hit. It means nothing is wasted, but it also means waaaaaay more stress to those tyres. So you'd need much softer, stickier tyres to get a good launch, else you're just spinning.

Basically, the BMR stuff is great, but without the stock setup taking the hit to give the tyres an easier launch, the tyres have now become the weakest link again. If the shocks were adjustable then they could tune them for a longer travel, but then they're soaking up some of the potential again anyway. At this sort of level it's a pretty serious balancing act.

[DFW1LE]

Does anyone know what tires/sizes they are running?

[BMR Suspension]

Hey guys, this is Pete Epple at BMR. I was there for the installation of the parts and a significant amount of the testing after the installation. I have been a huge part of the process since the BMR went on the car and I will give you the rundown of how everything happened after the BMR parts were installed. I will also answer any question you have... here goes!

At face value, this thread is accurate. BUT there is way more to everything that happened than the could be explained in the story. The car had a best 60' time on 1.34 prior to the BMR parts being installed. Ryan Martin had told us the rear of the car was extremely unpredictable. It felt unsettled and inconsistent, and the car would lose traction for a number of reasons at different points of the run. This was the main reason for wanted to make changes to the rear suspension. A large part of the project was testing for BMR. Not many people had been pushing a sixth gen this hard at the time, and it was a great opportunity for us to test at an extremely high level.

As I'm sure most of you know, Ryan Martin is a cast member on Street Outlaws with his fifth-gen Camaro race car. Because of this, the sixth-gen project didn't always get the attention it needed. I went out to Oklahoma during the filming season to help install the BMR parts and test the car. At the time of the installation we added all of the BMR parts, switched to 15" wheels, removed the front and rear sway bars, and all of this was done among massive changes in tuning (these wholesale changes were/are made on a regular basis, as this project is an R&D tool for Fireball).

Once the BMR parts were installed, the car was aligned and we went to the track. It was a warm day, but much of the testing was done during extremely cold conditions. I don't have the exact numbers, but the DA was in some cases as much as 3,000 feet different. The car has stock MRC shocks on it. These are still in place. When you get into a car that makes this kind of power and hits the tires as hard as this one does, rear shocks are a crucial part of the puzzle in regards to making the car hook. With the stock suspension components, there is so much defection from the soft rubber bushings, that the hit to the tires was dampened by this deflection. I know this sounds like a solid reason NOT to upgrade the suspension, but the deflection is nothing more than wasted power, and it is extremely inconsistent. The first outing there was little more than tire spin at the hit. Every other aspect of the car and tuning was a direct A-B. Unfortunately, the application of power was so much more aggressive, the tire couldn't hold it. This was part of the testing process, and we knew going into it that this could happen.

Over the course of the next few weeks, the Fireball guys made changes to the car and went to the track when time permitted (like I said, this was during the filming of season 10 of Street Outlaws). There were some issues (tuning related) with the car that the guys were chasing. In the process, they broke some parts and found some things that were bleeding off boost and hurting power (tuning issues solved). With this stuff fixed, the car made an insane amount of power. I don't know if I can post the numbers or not, so I won't, but they are well into four digits!

At the time, no one offered direct replacements adjustable shocks that would help control the application of power to the tires. Being that this is a test vehicle for the Fireball production cars, the guys did not want to fab in a race shock. So they kept the stock MRC shocks on the car. Knowing this and coupling it with the extra power found by fixing a few things, a ton of power had to be pulled out of the car at the hit in order to keep traction. The nitrous was turned on at a much lower level and ramped in at a much slower rate than before. This is the main reason for the slower 60' times. but according to Ryan (I'm paraphrasing), the car is much more stable at the hit and at speed, and the consistency of the car (stability and launch characteristics) is night and day better than with the stock suspension parts.

So yes, the 60' times are slower with the BMR parts, but the car is doing exactly what it's supposed to do. There are a few missing pieces to make the car perfect and I keep pushing them to add them. Looking at what the car has run with such a soft launch, imagine what it will run when it goes 1.1x 60' times!

I think this covers the bulk of how everything went and what happened. Let me know what questions you have an I will do my best to answer what I can. If I need to get an answer from the Fireball guys, I will do my best to get an answer. Street Outlaws Season 11 starts any day now and I know the guys are thrashing to get the maintenance and upgrades to the race car done.

Pete

[BMR Suspension]

Originally Posted by DFW1LE

Does anyone know what tires/sizes they are running?

MT 275 pro

[BMR Suspension]

Originally Posted by Ecchi667

The stiffer rear means there is no squat on takeoff, so the tyres are taking a harder hit. It means nothing is wasted, but it also means waaaaaay more stress to those tyres. So you'd need much softer, stickier tyres to get a good launch, else you're just spinning.

Basically, the BMR stuff is great, but without the stock setup taking the hit to give the tyres an easier launch, the tyres have now become the weakest link again. If the shocks were adjustable then they could tune them for a longer travel, but then they're soaking up some of the potential again anyway. At this sort of level it's a pretty serious balancing act.

This is a huge part of it. As I stated above, they pulled power out to make it all work.

[TheRedhead]

It's Smelly Bacon's fault.

I think that means it's Colt's fault.

[BMR Suspension]

Originally Posted by TheRedhead

It's Smelly Bacon's fault.

I think that means it's Colt's fault.

It was most likely a Smelly Bacon/Colt 'MEH' Mills tag-team effort...

[Eric SS]

Originally Posted by TheRedhead

It's Smelly Bacon's fault.

Damn Belly Shaken. He's easy to blame. Leave it to the Ford guy.

[parish8]

It sounds like they changed quite a few things at once, not just the bmr stuff.

That makes more sense to me. Thanks for the reply.

[BMR Suspension]

Originally Posted by parish8

It sounds like they changed quite a few things at once, not just the bmr stuff.

That makes more sense to me. Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, there were a lot of changes made all at once. I wasn't overly happy about it, but I didn't have a say in any of it. No matter how you slice it, the car is bad fast and these guys are straight legit when it comes to making cars go fast! We are extremely proud to be a part of the program!