In what is another step forward for a manufacturer that’s been pushing the envelope of torque converter technology for 30 years, Neal Chance Racing Converters has purchased a pair of Dynocom 7200 series hub dynamometer pods in a targeted initiative to advance its product development and tuning capabilities.

“What we want to be able to do is simulate what we’re doing at the track, and eliminate the variables that exist in real-world testing. Testing at the track is great, but there are so many things that can go wrong,” Marty Chance explains. “You need perfect track prep, weather conditions, and so on…there are so many things that can go wrong and you don’t get any data. Sometimes I’ve traveled halfway across the country and it rains or the track prep isn’t up to par, or the sun is beating down on the track, there’s an issue with the car…a million different things can kill the opportunity for development. The dyno takes all of those variables out of the equation and allows us to have a baseline that’s repeatable. Year-round, we can come back to that dyno and pick up right where we left off.”

“One of the reasons we went with the Dynocom is that it can read out time-based,” Chance goes on to say. “What I wanted is data that looks like what we see on our Racepak, which is all time-based. When I mentioned that to Dyncom, an engineer said they already have that functionality, and quickly showed me how to do it. That was perfect. Then I asked about the ability to import my driveshaft data line and import it into the dyno, so that I don’t spend all day dialing in the dyno to what I just did at the track — they’re now working on that software, as well. That was everything I wanted to hear.”

Chance chose the 7200 series, which is capable of holding a staggering 14,000 lb-ft of torque, which could even allow him to run the nitro-burning Pro Modified car that he recently purchased for future converter development.

NCRC will initially use the dyno for in-house development, but Chance says in time it will also serve as a tool for customer tuning. 

“When we get a really good handle on techniques to increase the opportunity for making e.t. and speed gains, I can see bringing in a customer car, use some prototype ideas to put in the converter based on current data-logs, and we can make changes and proceed to test it. We should be able to use the dyno to make predictable gains at the track — we obviously can’t run the car on the dyno and it read exactly the same as it would at the track — it’s not completely apples to apples, but it will be close enough that we can make a predictable gain.”

Chance will utilize a wide range of parameters for its testing, going well beyond the relationship between engine and driveshaft RPM. “To oversimplify it, our goal is to put more power to the tire, more efficiently. We want to engineer a better mousetrap, and with the same amount of power, accelerate the vehicle faster. That power transfer is read on a dyno with a torque meter, so we’ll literally see what different areas we can apply more power. Recovering a gear shift, for example, is a huge part of making a car faster without increasing power — how to re-accelerate the gear changes. There are so many areas that we can learn from by running the car on a dyno,” he explains.

Chance closes, saying, “I think this is going to be the fastest way to develop new technology. Torque converter development is what we’ve made our name on.”