Over 250 companies introduced new products at the 2017 SEMA Show in Las Vegas last week. Several hundred of those new products were for racing applications. Racing Junk has picked the five top new products for racing applications that were introduced at SEMA. These products come from Ron Francis Wiring, Quick Fuel, Penske Racing Shocks, Racepak, and Trick Flow Specialties. As a bonus, we also chose a runner-up product from AEM Performance Electronics.
Express Racing Harness from Ron Francis Wiring
Wiring up a new race car from scratch can be a pain in neck. New attendee Ron Francis Wiring makes wiring up your race car a snap with their Express Race Wiring System. These race-only wiring harness kits are available for vehicles powered by Ford, GM, and Dodge/Chrysler engines. It has 16 separate fused circuits and four relays, ensuring that you’ve got enough separate circuits to wire your whole car without having to piggy-back circuits which can cause shorts and system overloads. There’s even a multi-connection battery junction block so you can decrease the number of octopus legs going every which way for your custom add-ons.
Each of the 16 fused circuits (with two piggy-backed for a total of 18 circuits) have color-coded and printed wires making circuit identification a snap. Unlike some other wiring harness kits, Ron Francis kits come with all the connectors and instructions that you need to easily and (relatively) quickly wire up your strip burner. Sixteen circuits mean you’ll have the separate circuits required by some sanctioning bodies, allowing your car to pass inspection and still have extra to add circuits and accessories later. There’s even an isolated relay for your cooling fan for those that drive road courses, rally, and autocross.
The Express Race Wiring System is designed with a new style terminal block to make connecting the hi-temp fire resistant wires t the fuse block quicker and easier than ever before. It will allow wiring up a full gauge cluster as well as steering columns from ididit, Flaming River, and GM, and aftermarket HEI and points-style distributors. So you can pass any safety inspection, there’s also enough to wire up all required lighting as well as neutral safety switches. Plus, there’s a high quality headlight switch with wiring included in the kit.
Quick Fuel EFI Filter Regulator
Quick Fuel’s EFI Filter Regulator was selected by the SEMA judges as one of the best new products for racing applications that was introduced at this year’s show. It accepts fuel line up to half inch with -8 AN fittings on both inlet and outlet, can flow up to 175 gallons per hour (GPH), and has a ten micron filter built in. The body is made of clear and black anodized aluminum, making it strong, lightweight, and resistant to corrosion.
One of the hardest parts of converting your carbureted or non-return EFI system to a return-type EFI is plumbing the return line. Quick Fuel addressed that problem with this regulator with a filter and return line built-in. This allows the regulator to be mounted near the fuel cell, easing your installation/conversion woes considerably. The regulator is preset at 59.5 PSI so it matches up with most racing EFI systems on the market.
Penske Air Dump Assembly Gives Digressive Spring Curve
The new Air Dump Assembly from Penske Racing Shocks allows you to create a spring curve that is digressive using any common spring. A digressive curve is one that starts hard and gets softer as the jounce continues. This means that small suspension oscillations will keep the suspension feeling stiff and in control but large oscillations will feel softer and less jarring. Penske tested the device for two years in NHRA competition and had excellent success with it and now they’re moving out to other racing applications.
This device is excellent for getting instant traction with your race car by allowing you to run a stiffer spring rate. The Air Dump Assembly counteracts the stiffer spring as it compresses, helping you to achieve/retain more traction as you move down the track. What happens with this device is that as the stiffer spring compresses, the load on the spring becomes more powerful as compared to the load the air assembly is producing. The air dump gives way when this happens and two full inches of the spring preload are taken up by the assembly, essentially reducing the spring rate of that stiffer spring and keeping your drive wheels in full contact with the track.
Racepak’s Winning Combination-The Vantage CL1 Data Kit
The new products review gods with SEMA awarded the Racepak Vantage CL1 Data Kit as “Best New Product for SEMA 2017 in two categories-Best New Engineered Product and Best New Performance-Racing Product. The Vantage CL Data Kit is advertised by Racepak to be “the most advanced, yet intuitive karting data system available.” Combined with Racepak’s excellent D3 Karting App and their kart mounted CL1 data box you get an unprecedented amount of connectivity, control, and monitoring capabilities.
The groundbreaking part of this product set is where it connects via Bluetooth on your cellphone. What happens is that after you pair the sensors with the data box and the cellphone, all the data captured by the sensors is sent to and displayed on the D3 app-equipped mobile device. This includes your lap times.
Leave a Reply