I searched the board and did not find an answer, so here it goes one for the T-Jet Drag racers:
Does power (amps/Voltage) equate to faster times (ET's), I know it should, but does there get to be a point were no matter how much power is going to the car, it is only going to go so fast?
I know hole shots, staging deep, and hooking up are all factors, but does it get to the point of useless power?

At the NTRA (found at) www.psychoslots.com we run 13 volts for our Super Stock class, this is the chosen voltage for the tracks that hold the Proxy race.. Yes it does effect the E.T of the cars.. compared to running them at 18 volts or better..
Depending on what type of car/motor you are running can sometimes dictate the voltage.. I have had one inline (tyco 440 x2) chassis that wouldn't /won't even turn over on less than 18 volts battery power.. How fast was/is it?? Don't know!, last time it was run.. there was no timing system available.. but you couldn't see it... Steve Geary (holds the world record in H.O drag racing) I believe runs 24 volts...
We run the 13 volts in the super stock class because it lends to realism of the race, some cars come on late, some holeshot and carry it to the finish.. slower sometimes is more fun to watch.. or race.. Others prefer to hit the trigger and let it rip.. it's a matter of personal preference either way, no right , no wrong..
Our Gasser class usually runs on 18 volts from a power supply.. lower E.T.'s but also more modifications than our SS class..
Voltage/amps does effect the speed of the cars, as much as the build.. You can go from fender to fender racing you can see, to OMG! Where did it go? The choice is yours.
Chris

in theory.........adding higher voltages would yield higher speeds ad infinitum.

in practice several things become limiting factors.

Only so much current can pass through the wires of the armature. At some point they electrically overload.......the excess electron flow, becomes heat and the arm or parts surrounding it melt. If the motor survives the heat, at some point it mechanically self destructs, usually by throwing windings of the armature.


ok what makes the car faster in general terms?????? Amps or volts......well its both!!

amps times volts equals watts, which is a measure of work. Watts is convertible to horsepower.

ok heres the best i can do, and others may correct my simple analog.


All things being equal, the more voltage you send to the motor, the faster it runs. PROVIDED: The power source is capable of delivering the amperage flow the motor is 'asking' for. If the motors work load is measurable in more amps than the power supply can deliver, the VOLTAGE supplied drops under load. Thats why voltage is normally and should be stated at a fixed amperage like this: "18 volts DC @ 3 amps" ..if your car has a real hot arm and magnets, and you floor it, it may demand more than 3 amps and now the voltage supplied will drop, or certainly level off.


Simply stated ( Ihope) More Voltage= Higher speed, if youn have enough amps cabaillity in the power supply.

Assuming this power is deliverable to the motor, the motor windings have to be able to stand the electrical flow and the mechanical stresses.

A last factor is friction coefficient, which we call TRACTION. Now that you have all this power it has to relate to mechanical energy and be applied to the track surface, just like the big guys.

Ok, did I taker a simple question and confuse it more? or does this help?

It helps, thanks. The question came from a group that would not turn the power up past 12v, they said it was useless power (and they wanted to keep with the nastalgia of old T-Jet racing). That I could understand, but when asked why they didn't strech the back stretch to 15' or 18' which the table the track was laid on could easily support, they said that was useless, because no matter how much power the T-Jet was givin, it toped out at twelve feet. (I know this not to be true, in personal exp.).
So I was wondering if in fact that was true, did you get to the point of "Useless power"?
In 1:1 Drag racing, "There is no replacement, for displacement" (more is better) so just wondered if this was fact, or were they "drinking the kool-aid."