- With a best ET of 5.69 at 259 mph, Rod Harvey's Toyota Camry is currently
the fourth fastest import in the world on ET or quickest I should say,
and the third fastest on mile an hour.
We're here with Rod at Sydney Jamboree 2020 to find out a little bit about what makes
this car so fast.
Rod, for a start I think it's worth saying that you've been doing this for a long time and
you've been seeing iterative improvements on the mile an hour, we know that when
you first when into the sixes and then into the fives, and we've seen a flood of other
competitors come into the five second zone and for those viewing at home,
it's a massive feat to get there at any stretch anyway, but you're really one
of the top competitors all around the world.
And you've recently gone to a completely new car to obviously try and go a little
bit quicker.
So I wan to start with that, what's the difference between this new chassis
and your old one?
- With the Celica we were probably, we got to a point where we were
struggling, we'd make a change to the car and we wouldn't see a result.
So the idea behind obviously the new car, not only to be lighter but was just later
model technology, obviously it's more than 10 years newer so we make a change to
the four link or the suspension and we see a result and the car accepts the power we're
trying to throw at it.
It's obviously a Pro Mod car.
The Celica originally was a pro stock car so they were designed to do 200 mph,
when we bought it, and we made it go 253, so you can see why the change was made.
- So you're starting with a Pro Mod chassis which is really designed to run these sort
of ETs and mile an hour straight out the box?
- Correct and like I say the car reacts when you do something to it and we can put that
much power in it and that just helps the whole program.
- Now it's a Pro Mod car but you don't have the benefit of large capacity Pro Line V8 or
anything like that with twin turbos, you are running the age old well proven Toyota 2JZ,
but you have gone to a billet engine a number of years ago.
Can you tell us what sort of power level the engine's producing?
- To run those sorts of ETs it has to be over 3000.
If I was a lot smarter, probably I'd put a Pro Line V8 in it and I wouldn't have to fix
it every five minutes but I'm still passionate about trying to make the six cylinder deal
go fast and I've put that much, along with my crew and team we've put that much
R&D into it over the years that at this present point I believe we can probably
go a little bit better so we'll just keep chipping away at it while we can.
- Yeah you really are right up at the forefront of that 2JZ performance
whereas yeah it'd be easy as you say to put a V8 in it and probably go as quick,
maybe even a little bit quicker but you'd be one of a sea of hundreds of those
competitors doing exactly the same thing.
Now in terms of the 2JZ engine, with the billet block at the power level you're at,
is it safe to assume that the billet block is an essential?
- Definitely an essential, to put that much boost or make that much power,
definitely a billet block, I mean at the moment in the background we've got to start thinking
about billet heads because they don't actually make these heads anymore for
the Toyotas so they're getting thin and we seem to go through them.
- Just coming back, because you did run for a long time with the cast iron block before
you made the jump to billet, probably not one of the first to go to
the billet either.
You're still going plenty fast on the cast iron block.
Where was the failure point, what were you breaking on those cast blocks?
- Really the rear main bearing would, they would just move around in general
when you put that much boost or that much power into them.
And it got to a point where you'd buy a cast block and you might get 20 runs
out of it but the next one you go and buy you might get three runs out of it.
- Just the variation from one block to another?
- Yeah and you never knew what you were going to get when you're trying to stick that much
boost or that much power into them and they just keep moving around.
So going to the billet deal's definitely helped with bearing program and crankshafts
and yeah it just works and you can't do it without it.
I think another thing that's worth mentioning here that most people will probably overlook
is driver safety is actually another big factor.
If you have an engine let go at 250 mph and you get oil under the slicks or
something under the slicks then there's a serious chance that you're going to hurt
yourself so the reliability of the billet block, safety for the driver is a consideration?
- Oh absolutely, I have had cast iron blocks let go and I have driven over my own oil
more than once and it's no fun so you've got to definitely like you say look at that.
The block that we made ourselves has actual windows in the side of it,
so if a rod does let go, it can come out easily without destroying everything else
around it and putting a pool of oil on the ground so to speak.
- In terms of the cylinder head, you said you've been having some trouble with those
so this is still the factory cast head, albeit I imagine it's fairly well worked over in
house by you guys before it makes it onto the engine so where are the limitations
with those heads?
- Well what I'm finding now is putting as much boost or pressure into the engine as what we
are does take its toll on the heads but once again they'll start to move around
and the valve seats and things like that have trouble staying in there.
You try and increase the size of the valve and then you have less material to hold onto
the seat so you've got to find a happy mediocre.
Boost normally fixes most things so if you can't put a bigger valve in, just put more
boost in, it still seems to work I've worked out.
- That's a good point yeah, it's a replacement displacement for sure.
So you're going to go down the path of developing a CNC billet head for it as well?
- I think we need to and we're sort of chipping away on that in the background
at the moment.
The rules here restrain us from running a billet block and a billet head.
But we can, things are changing, it'll get to a point where we don't have a choice,
if we want to keep moving forward or making these things go faster.
- When the world runs out of 2JZ cylinder head castings that are usable then yeah
you either go billet or you don't race.
Obviously the whole engine there is really just designed to support the power
and remain reliable.
It's the turbocharger that's really the key, or one of the keys to this whole show,
so what are you running there?
- So it has Pro Mod either a 106 or 110 on it depending on what I feel like on the day.
We went out the other week and changed some other stuff and I put a 106 on it
'cause I knew how consistent I can be with it.
It's got a 110 on it for this weekend and I haven't run it that much so I'm sort
of trying to get a handle on a few things but it seems to be every time we add more
turbo to these cars they go faster but back in the early days when you added a turbo
and it was, whether it be an 88 and you went to a 94, you saw a big jump.
And then when you went from a 94 to a 98 was a big jump but now once you start
getting up around a 102 a 106 a 110, I don't think you see the gains which
you saw two or three years ago you know.
- Now going from a 106 to a 110 we're talking about the compressor diameter
here and you're essentially saying the 110 mm wheel on paper, potential for
more airflow, some more power, hence you can go faster.
Is that a balancing act though with, you've still got to get the car to
60 foot and if you can't do that then it doesn't really matter how much power
you're making, you might run a fast mile an hour but the ET's not going to be there
so how do you balance that?
- Correct I mean it's really hard to do obviously and the track changes as the
day goes on so we use obviously boost and timing to control how much we put
in the first part of the run.
It is hard to control and we're trying to put as much in as early as we can because
that's what you do when you want to go fast.
You can't pussyfoot around you know.
- Now I want to talk about getting the boost into it because you are using quite an
interesting boost control technique that straight away is pretty obvious looking
at the exhaust side of the engine, there's no wastegate.
So that's conventionally how we control boost by basically leaking the exhaust
gas around the turbocharger, controlling the energy available to the turbine wheel.
You're doing it on the other side of the turbo so can you talk us through how that system
works?
- It's just an electric fly by wire motor or an electric motor creating a leak on the intake
side and we control it by the computer by opening or closing it.
I believe if you've got boost, you don't want to waste it.
So having it on the exhaust also for me used to pose some problems when it first opens,
you could never get a real nice line.
- Getting control of the boost.
- So we over the years just have done what a few other people have done and I believe
you've probably done it yourself in the early days for various reasons but yeah I just
use an electric fly by wire motor to control the boost and seem to have a reasonably
good handle on it.
And try and not waste any boost, we use everything we can as early as we can.
- So you're actually closing the throttle body some way down the strip, obviously depending
on the traction available and literally that turbo is beating as much boost as it's
going to make?
- Absolutely.
- And what sort of numbers are you seeing?
- It'll make 100 pound and we try and as you say close it, depending on the track
and get as much in as we can.
- Now coming back, you sort of just talked about with the wastegate boost control,
getting good control of that boost in a nice flat line and I think again probably for those
who aren't familiar with these styles of car, getting a consistent launch really requires
rock solid RPM and rock solid boost so you're leaving the line on the hit with
the same amount of power and the same RPM every time so the clutch works
properly, so is that what you're talking about getting the good stable boost
control there?
- Yeah that all helps.
With these cars there's a few things, you don't have cubic inches on your side
and until that turbo makes power or makes boost or however you want to call it,
trying to control the tyre when you need to control it, you have no torque basically
to start off, unlike a V8.
And then when you've got it, you've got everything.
So at that point in the run is normally when you're trying to control the back wheel to
get it to 60 and to go to 300 feet.
So that's why it's important to have a good handle on all that stuff.
60 to 300 feet in my mind, everyone might be different but that's pretty important.
After then you're normally good to go, if the car's pointing in the right direction,
the rest doesn't matter.
- So really the whole secret to the run is the 60 foot and then the 330 foot.
Once you're there, you're just a passenger?
- Pretty much, just hold on at that stage.
- A passenger having a pretty good time.
- Yeah well you're trying to have a good time.
But yeah that's how I operate, everyone might have their own opinion on it or their own
idea on it but seems to work for me.
- Yeah you can't argue that it's definitely working.
Getting control of that drive by wire throttle for the boost control,
as with every other aspect of this car obviously is quite involved as well.
Can you talk us through the basics of the electronics package on the engine?
- It's got an M150 MoTeC on it obviously.
Which in the early days we used to run two M800s to control, back to back, to control
the fly by wire motor 'cause we didn't have enough to drive it.
You need a good ECU to do it the way I'm doing it as well, well most ECUs
probably couldn't do what this ECU could do but it's taken a long time to garner
the information which we've just collated from doing laps and going up and down
the track to get it to work the way we like it to work.
- For those who aren't familiar with that MoTeC M1 ECU as well, what you're running here
I can only assume will be a custom firmware package where you can basically have the
ability to write your own code to control the engine and the chassis however you
want, that's how you're running it?
- Pretty much, that has been written to suit what we're doing but based on what
we're doing, they're now selling a package that is based on what we started doing
and they've used that as a drag package for most people.
So you could ring up MoTeC tomorrow and grab something that can control a fly by
wire motor.
- So it's one thing to have the same firmware package that Rod Harvey's running,
it's another thing to still go 5.60s with that package.
So don't think that that's the whole secret to it.
- It's easy, anyone can do it, just go buy the MoTeC tomorrow.
- Now one more thing I want to talk about here, you're running on methanol fuel,
obviously the go to fuel of this sort of level and the ability to run an intercooler
or the ability to not run an intercooler, we sort of see a bit of a division amongst
drag racers with high boost turbocharged engines.
I noticed you're running a water to air intercooler here.
Can you give us your take on the pros and cons of going intercooler vs no
intercooler?
- I've always run an intercooler 'cause I believe that air intake temperatures are
really important on making the engine live.
Hey this car's done lap after lap and gone to final after final over the years because
I believe that air intake temperature is that important.
Now that's once again just my own theory on it and obviously the guys that helped me
that I'm surrounded with but we've stuck to that program and never really
differed from it and I think we've achieved or made good gains by sticking with it.
- I think with a lot of things, drag racing no different, you sort of become a little bit
superstitious, you try something, it works, if there's no reason to change it you don't.
Basically the old story, if it isn't broken, don't fix it is that fair?
- Very fair.
If I told some people what numbers we have on our intake and stuff like that,
they probably wouldn't believe me but it definitely helps so there's a big enough
clue for you.
- Look yeah as you say, no doubt it's working, thanks for the chat there Rod,
it's been great to get some insight into the car and it's a test day here,
you've put in a couple of test passes so far, a few more to go and obviously we've
got racing tomorrow so we wish you all the best, look forward to seeing how the
car goes.
- Thank you very much, good to talk to you.
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