what does nascar use to run there air tools

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On a bright, sweltering Saturday afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway, in a shiny new Ingersoll Rand hauler located 20 yards from the Sprint Cup Series garages, pit crew tire changers trickle in and out, picking up or dropping off their scuffed yellow-and-black Ingersoll Rand Thunder Guns. Each man is met with a warm smile by Jim Hurd, the ane person who knows their guns besides as they exercise.

"These are race-day-simply guns," Hurd explains. "They have some other set that they pit-practise with, and in one week they'll put on about the equivalent of five to half dozen races. They practice every day."

Equally the name suggests, the Thunder Gun is a powerful tool—a ½-inch impact wrench that uses 110 psi of nitrogen to produce roughly one thousand lb-ft of torque and 15,000 rpm. (A typical impact wrench runs at near 1800 rpm.)Ingersoll Rand sells the $1500 gun exclusively to professional race teams. Hurd and then customizes and scrupulously maintains the guns for the tire changers, making any number of adjustments depending on their preferences.

During a pitstop, the pit crew moves in a highly synchronized pattern based on the movements of the two tire changers. A Sprint Cup Serial tire changer should take between one.2 and 1.five seconds to striking all five lug nuts. On average, that's 0.28 seconds per nut. A pit crew at the acme of its game tin can modify out 2 right tires in a mere v.v seconds and a full set in 12.5. Information technology's a precision, high-pressure chore where, every bit Hurd puts it, "one-half a 2nd can toll you lot a one thousand thousand bucks."

The relationship betwixt the Hurd family, Ingersoll Rand, and Nascar dates back more than than 50 years. As Hurd tells it, his grandad, Howard Hurd, was an Ingersoll Rand distributor and sold tools out of his VW minibus. In 1957, while watching the races on the sand during a family vacation in Daytona Beach, Fla., racers who needed repairs spotted him and his rolling tool shop; he was soon sold out. It was here that Howard first met Bill France Sr., the founder of Nascar.

The next year Howard and his van returned to Daytona for the races and sold out once again. "Neb France Sr. comes over and says, 'Await, I'm building this track—Daytona Speedway,'" Jim Hurd says. "'I'd dear for y'all to come down hither and service these guys.'?" Howard readily agreed. "Nineteen fifty-9, he took his van, parked information technology in the garage, and nosotros've been at that place e'er since."

In the 1960s, Howard Hurd traveled the race circuit, servicing various stock Ingersoll Rand tools, including the 405, a pneumatic impact wrench. The modifying started when Glen and Leonard Wood of the Wood Brothers Racing team asked Howard if he could start supplying them with tweaked versions of the wrench. Back then, pitstops were slow-paced affairs—almost leisurely compared with today'due south standards. With souped-up tools and a rigorous pitstop ethic, the Wood brothers dominated. Soon pitstops became pivotal and Howard was in high need.

Jim Hurd proudly carries on his grandfather's legacy. He'due south in his 28th year on the job and currently services the Thunder Gun, which was launched by Ingersoll Rand in 1998 with the help of Ray Evernham, Jeff Gordon's coiffure primary at the time. The guns are used by about all Nascar tire changers and can be modified in numerous ways.

For example: Nose cones can be steel, titanium, or carbon fiber (the final existence the lightest). The gun's exhaust can be widened for improved airflow and college rpm, and it can even exist repositioned if needed (a front end frazzle might blow restriction dust in the gunman's face, or a side frazzle could spit oil onto the jackman or the tire carrier). And the resistance on a forward—contrary torque toggle can be adjusted (most Sprint Cup tire changers prefer high resistance to forestall an accidental switch).

Back at the hauler, people drop in just to say howdy, and Hurd seems to know everyone around the garages by name. This could soon change, though. In two years, Hurd hopes to man a similar setup at a Formula One race in Europe. He's received some calls about a 1-inch gun for the unmarried middle bolts on their wheels, he says. Just first he's got to go the setup perfect. At that place'southward a lot of racing over there.

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Source: https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a8072/behold-the-thunder-gun-nascars-new-secret-weapon-12403645/