Our last Dyno Day was October 2020 (12 owners participated) and since then several members have asked if we could schedule another opportunity to try out your Corvette (or other 2-wheel drive vehicle). We have a Saturday morning planned at Carburetor Connection in Kirkland.
Have you installed performance modifications to your Corvette and want verification of the results? Or do you have a new C8 and want your rightful bragging rights.
Cost is $98.00 for your Corvette or other 2-wheel drive vehicle. You can register and pay on the web site. Each car will get a minimum of 2 dyno “pulls”. The intent is to get two consistent results. This is NOT a test and tune, where you can change components and then do another pull. The shop does offer those tuning opportunities (and can help with those modifications) but tuning on the dyno is beyond the scope of our day (or our cost), so you can always schedule more involved testing directly with the shop. We need a MINIMUM of 8 paid participants to make this work. Spectators are welcome at no charge.
Procedure: The car owner drives the vehicle into the shop and stops with the rear wheels on the dynamometer rollers. Shop personnel will secure the vehicle both the front and back. Any risk on securing is the shop’s risk and they will not allow the participants to do the securing. I am sure you can watch, but it is their liability, so naturally they want to do the securing. I also expect they will have the vehicle hood open and a large fan blowing towards the front of the car to help with cooling. The dyno computer and shop tech are located near the driver’s window. The shop tech will provide direction, but as I remember the procedure, the driver will rather slowly accelerate the vehicle until it is in 4th gear (or as close to direct 1:1 ratio as possible with an automatic). The shop tech will then have you go to full throttle until you hit the car’s rev limiter, or until the tech tells you to back off. This will provide a horsepower/rpm curve that will show the horsepower at the various rpms. Generally, the maximum horsepower is reached just before red line (rev limiter) so the tech will tell you there is no benefit to rev higher. Note that is the vehicle owner prefers, an experienced shop tech will operate your car, ONLY if you want. When you let off the throttle you do NOT touch the brakes as there is a lot of resistance in that roller which will rapidly slow the car’s engine and tire speed. Remember that Chevrolet installed a rev limiter in your later model Corvette to prevent you from revving the engine beyond what Chevrolet determined was a safe red line. This rev limiter prevents the engine from exceeding that safe limit. Those of us that autocross or open track have hit the rev limiter on numerous occasions as it is impossible to closely monitor the tachometer, especially in autocross. Kevin has participated with two different cars at two different dyno facilities, and they were similar in operation. While I think the risk of engine damage is very unlikely, it should be noted that any car damage, other than the car coming loose from the securing or roller is the risk of the owner.
If you want to participate register on the website now and watch for more details as the date nears. Your point of contact for this event is Kevin Jewell, so please contact Kevin with questions.
