Dale Vaznaian was co-founder of Nitrous Oxide Systems [NOS] and was the inventor and patent holder for the first “Fogger Nozzle”. By his own admission he has always been intrigued by the short lived, highly controversial and impressively powerful Funny Car that Mickey Thompson put together in the early 70s using a compressed air supercharging system. A system that was mechanically controlled.
Vaznaian wondered what would happen if contemporary electronic controls were applied to the concept. Having long since left NOS he has teamed up with former NOS Chief Engineer Karl Staggemeier to find out. The upshot is their company Compressed Air Systems [CAS]. Its technology has recently been revealed as applied to Mark Griffin’s current NHRA Top Sportsman contender.
This all-steel ’68 Camaro has a Big Block Chevrolet built specifically to exploit the potential of CAS’ innovative technology. Its charge air is either ambient or is compressed and is fed in through a four barrel type manifold using port fuel injection. Ambient air is used only for running in the pits and the burn out.
Come the actual race and a butterfly seals the induction system from that ambient inflow and the electronically controlled CAS system allows instead a supply of compressed air into the manifold. The car has two rear mounted 38 in long carbonfibre air bottles for eighth mile running with a third such added for a quarter mile dash. It takes about 20 minutes to refill them between runs.
This onboard supply has been compressed to 225 psi and is regulated into the engine such that it [currently] offers up to 3.2 bar absolute manifold pressure. That level is attained from ambient within just four tenths of a second. Since the compressed charge air enters the engine at -30° F detonation is not a danger.
Using CAS’ technology there is decreased sensitivity to air:fuel ratio and to fuel quality. Moreover, the absence of ambient air interaction means the engine performs the same regardless of air density and temperature – track height above sea level and weather conditions do not concern the CAS user. Currently the CAS system is programmed such that Griffin’s unique car exploits over 2000 bhp, allowing it to run the quarter mile in 6.8 seconds at over 200 mph.
