Greg,
There is no way on earth that a track racer would INCREASE the mass of the flyweel. The increase in mass directly relates to an increase in the moment of inertia and "simple physics" tells you that more enrgy is required to accelerate something with a higher moment of inertia.
E=(mv^2)/2 + (Iw^2)/2
Where:
E Energy
m mass of the body
v straight line velocity
I inertia
w angular velocity
So you can see that the ergergy required to accelerate an object is directly proportional to the moment of inertia. So something with a smaller mass and moment of inertia require less energy to accelerate it. hence why drag racers strip down the weight of there cars and reduce the mass of all rotating parts e.g. wheels, valavetrain, flywheel etc.
You can't argue with it....
And on a side note semi trucks have HUGE flywheels to help them maintain velocity while cruising and to help them take off from a dead stop because there mass is so huge that a light fllywheel would make it extremely hard for them to maintain the engine revs and keep their engines in the "power band". But the drawback is that is take a long time to rev up the engine in the first placer as it has to overcome the mass of the flywheel.
It may be okay to use a heavy flywheel for drag racing, but that is ONLY if you can launch by revving and holding the engine to a fixed rpm (usually with the use of a stutterbox) and then just feathering out the clutch. This is not nice for the clutch, and who has a stutterbox on a Contour?
Afterall, you are one of the biggest proponents on this board when it comes to arguing that the Conbtour is not a drag car, but a master of the twistied and the auto-x track.
