Lonon uses a throttle switch...
Lonon uses a throttle switch with a roller bearing on it, as he's had the more common non-roller-type fail and break before. This design puts less stress on the actual lever. Said lever can be used to activate the nitrous controller's timer.
To put the Edelbrock progressive controller into practice, we called upon two local Tampa Bay area racers, Clint Lonon and Mike Burkart, to show you what it takes to install the Edelbrock Progressive Nitrous Controller, and to show you how to implement its functions at the track. The whole process is far simpler than installing the nitrous system itself, but installing the progressive controller can make a world of a difference in your elapsed times, and your win streak.
These days, small-tire racing is all the rage for the sportsman racer who wants to runs heads up. Clint Lonon of Lutz, Florida, is just such a racer-he runs a number of local racing classes that utilize a small drag radial tire, usually no more than 275mm wide.
Proper wiring is essential...
Proper wiring is essential whenever electrical components are added/used. Lonon uses this main relay board from Speedwire Systems to provide all of the necessary power and relay requirements.
Running in the Heads Up Madness Real Street class at his local track, Sunshine Dragstrip in St. Petersburg, Clint's '97 Mustang has a single-bar Induction Solutions Real Street plate system (PN 19738 or PN19739) on top of his 430-cube BES Racing Engines bullet. Running the class-specified 82 nitrous jet through the Edelbrock-based plate and using the Edelbrock progressive controller, Clint's Mustang has charged to a best eighth-mile time of 5.23 seconds at 135 mph. Induction Solutions' Steve Johnson told MM&FF that the Real Street plate in this configuration offers about 225-250 hp, depending on the jet and bottle pressure.
Clint also runs a class called Ultimate Street in the Outlaw Radial Tire Championship series, which follows the same basic rules-single-bar plate system, 275 drag radial, but allows for an open jet choice. In this form, the shiny black stallion has run a best of 5.19 seconds at 136mph.
Clint recently added an IS fogger setup, along with an additional Edelbrock pro-gressive controller, to compete in the local Extreme 275 drag radial class. With two nitrous systems and a small tire, ultimate control of the nitrous oxide delivery is the only way to end up in the winner's circle.
The first setting on the controller...
The first setting on the controller is for the nitrous delay timer, which allows you to launch on motor and then engage the nitrous between 0.2 and 9.9 seconds later. The next setting is your nitrous starting percentage, which can be adjusted from 10 to 100 percent.
"I've used various Edelbrock products in the past with great results," says Lonon. "The Edelbrock Progressive Controller is a great product that, in the right hands, affords the nitrous racer a competitive edge." Lonon told MM&FF that while he might be able to run competitive elapsed times without the controller, getting down the track consistently would be far more difficult. The nitrous controller affords you the ability to get down the track every time, which is all the more important when running on a narrow tire.
To show you exactly how the controller works at the track, we called up the guys at Real Speed Racing in Clearwater, Florida, who hooked up MM&FF with customer Mike Burkart of Holiday, Florida. Mike also runs in the very competitive Heads Up Madness Real Street class at Sunshine Dragstrip with a 434ci, Windsor-based powerplant, as well as an Induction Solutions/Real Street single-bar plate system. We followed along as Mike and the Real Speed crew looked to make some test hits at Sunshine Dragstrip.
With Charley Pixley behind the wheel and Real Speed's Walter Drakeford making the changes to the Edelbrock progressive controller, the '86 Mustang GT trotted to a 5.43 at 131.42 mph (1.32 60-foot). This was with us starting at 15 percent, finishing with 100, and using a build time of 2.2 seconds. For the next run, we moved the starting percentage to 28 and knocked the build time down to 1.8 seconds, which resulted in a 5.34 at 131.92 mph (1.27 60-foot). The extra nitrous at the hit combined with a faster ramp rate decreased the 60-foot time and overall elapsed time.
On the final run of the night, we bumped the starting percentage to 32 percent and shortened the build time to just 1.6 seconds. We repeated the 1.27-second 60-foot time, but Burkart's GT dropped off shortly thereafter with Pixley noting wheelspin at the top of first gear. This resulted in a 5.37 at 131.36 mph. Had we more time, we would have slowly dialed the numbers back to account for the lack of traction, which is exactly what traction-limited racers like Mike Burkart and Clint Lonon do to get down the track every time.
The next setting is the final...
The next setting is the final nitrous percentage. You'll more than likely want to end up at 100 percent, unless you are throwing storm clouds of nitrous oxide at your engine.
Following the final percentage,...
Following the final percentage, you'll want to punch in the nitrous build time-effectively, how quickly you want to ramp your nitrous injection from the starting to final percentage. This is adjustable from 0.200-9.900 seconds. Beyond these settings, the Edelbrock Progressive Nitrous Controller also offers a single or dual ramp feature, which allows stair-stepping the nitrous build time and percentage to effectively control a single stage nitrous system in two levels. There's also an intelligent nitrous progressive timer, which monitors activation input and can be configured to hold and wait, or reset with gear changes