Neal Chance Racing Converters (NCRC) has wrapped initial testing on the sport’s first titanium torque converter and will soon go to market, delivering what is expected to be a huge boon to turbocharged entries at the sport’s highest levels.
The titanium converters, which are based on NCRC’s tried-and-true 10.5-inch billet aluminum PowerPump converter design, were tested by engine builder an drag-and-drive competitor Steve Morris in recent weeks, and received a resounding seal of approval. Titanium, of course, is incredibly strong and resistant to heat, which is omnipresent in turbocharged applications — but it’s high cost, often more expensive than aluminum by several orders of magnitude, has long made it untenable for majority use in a torque converter. But Marty Chance is changing all that.
“We’ve been wanting to do an all-titanium torque converter for 15 years. Our engineering division sat down and looked at doing this, and the cost was going to be too high … it was going to be about $50,000 per converter. It just wasn’t feasible. We got that price down to $25,000, and thought it was time to pull the trigger. It’s still going to be converter that the vast majority of racers wouldn’t be interested in, but that’s a number that’s not so far out in left field that it wouldn’t interest the guys that are at the very top of the turbocharged world that need that advantage of a lightweight converter than can take high temperature.”
Due to the high heat that turbo cars produce while spooling on the starting line, they are unable to utilize aluminum, instead forcing them to rely exclusively on heavier billet steel units.
“You don’t use aluminum in turbo cars because they produce tremendous temperatures in the converter. It’s nothing to see 500-600 degrees Fahrenheit inside the converter of a turbocharged car, and aluminum begins to turn soft at 430 degrees,” Chance says.
Chance chose Morris to test the converter because his “Boostmaster” drag-and-drive station wagon is both heavy (the car is nearly all factory steel) and extremely powerful (its powered by a 572 cubic inch SMX with twin 98mm turbos). It also has a tall rearend gear, which puts enormous load on the converter. “It’s the ultimate testbed,” Chance says. “This was the perfect way to prove if this product is viable, can it hold up to these rugged situations. If it can live in this car, it can live in anything.”
“Steve was gracious enough to…
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