The fan on my race car is wired to be on all the time. Why is that wrong?
Photography by Tim Suddard
Does a vintage race car need a cooling fan? There is some debate on the subject.
Our expert, Curt Vogt of Cobra Automotive, suggested our Mustang vintage racer did not need one. He’s based in cool Connecticut. We, however, are in Florida.
We decided that no one needs the panic of an overheating race car while sitting in grid. In our mind, the slight weight and power-robbing tendencies of a cooling fan outweigh the stressful feeling that you get when watching your temperature gauge rise while waiting to go out on track.
Summit Racing shipped us a 17-inch fan from Derale Performance. (The part No. is 18217, while it retails for less than $150.)
We’re not fans of simply strapping a fan to a radiator, though, as we like something more suited for the rigors of road racing.
We opted to make some aluminum brackets that mount the fan directly to the radiator. As long as you can weld aluminum well, this is a rather straight-forward solution.
From there, we wired the fan with a thermostatically controlled switch. We figure there’s enough to remember when racing–whether or not the fan has been turned on when returning to the paddock doesn’t need to be on that list.
The fan on my race car is wired to be on all the time. Why is that wrong?
In reply to edmagoo :
It's not. In theory you are sapping power but it is not enough to truly make a difference for most of us. It may shorten the life of the fan motor though but it may not make a difference at all.
I use the stock fan on my Datsun; it's a lightweight 4 blade plastic. I ran without one for a while but had to many instances where we had slow pace laps or had a full course yellow and the temps started to climb.
We just don't have a fan. We shut it down when it's warmed up and stopped. The fan was actually causing higher temps at race pace.
I wired a fan in my race car. If nothing else it looks totally trick when I pop the hood after an hpde session and lean into the cab and flip the switch panel to run some cool air past my headers.
Chick's dig it and the porsche guys think it's cool.
wvumtnbkr said:We just don't have a fan. We shut it down when it's warmed up and stopped. The fan was actually causing higher temps at race pace.
Running the fan made my RX-7 run cooler down the backstraight at Nelson Ledges.
In theory the fan is just windmilling when off, but I have also noted that at higher speeds than I could attain at Nelson, under the right conditions, turning the fan on made system voltage go up, so it was turning into a little generator. I thought that was kinda neat.
Fan on race car? Let me check the high scale professional series.
Formula 1? nope.
Indy car ? nope.
NASCAR? Nope.
Trans Am ? Nope.
My Black Jack ? Nope. *
The Jaguar XJS V12 ? Nope.
My $2000 challenge car? Nope.
My Jaguar V12 Tow car yeh.!
Hint; if the starter delays starting too long and you start getting worried. Next time walk up to the starter and dope slap him. Explain what an engine costs and that this is a hobby not a chance to practice his OCD
( actually you might avoid the need if you talk to the starter before the event).
* my Black Jack didn't have a fan or generator. Dead loss battery, never once had a single issue.
Looks like a nice setup with two speed options for that fan. Which one did you use?
I recently upgraded from a single 14" 1600 cfm fan to a dual 12" ~2500cfm full shroud setup (OEM ls1 f-body) and cooling in grid at autox events was significantly improved. 377ci SBC in a 2nd Gen Camaro.
JMcD said:Looks like a nice setup with two speed options for that fan. Which one did you use?
I recently upgraded from a single 14" 1600 cfm fan to a dual 12" ~2500cfm full shroud setup (OEM ls1 f-body) and cooling in grid at autox events was significantly improved. 377ci SBC in a 2nd Gen Camaro.
2nd gen? Cooling improvements? 377ci?
And you owned a 318ti? I may need a DNA test.
Keeping cool can also be achieved with the use of E85.
I would only consider not putting a radiator fan on a car if it were a dedicated serious-business race car, ideally with pit crew ready to run out with leafblowers. Even F1 cars are fitted with fans at times, just never for qualifying or the race. They're super convenient for all kinds of situations where you want to run the engine, and even a low-flowing lightweight slim fan is worlds better at keeping temperatures under control at a standstill than nothing at all.
frenchyd said:* my Black Jack didn't have a fan or generator. Dead loss battery, never once had a single issue.
Interesting, you rarely see this kind of setup outside of karts or landspeed cars. How long could it run between charges and what kind of voltage range would it run on?
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