what is wide open throttle?

WOT actually doesn't refer directly to the gas pedal. It refers to the throttle body which is controlled by the gas pedal.

One of the things you always check on a racing (or other high performance) car is for WOT. This means that when you depress the gas pedal all the way to the floor the throttle body rotates (or slides) to be wide open. I personally had changed a Formula Atlantic engine one long night up in Mosport, same engine type, throttle body, and engine builder only to find the next morning after our morning practice session that the reason we were a full second off with our new $20K rebuilt motor was because we weren't getting WOT. It should have been exactly the same but for some reason it wasn't. An adjustment was made to the throttle cable and the times dropped accordingly.

Very simple way to check this. Have a buddy press the throttle to the floor and hold it there. Put your hand on the throttle linkage that the cable connects to on the throttle body and see if you can rotate it some more. If you can, you're not getting WOT and are not getting everything you should be out of the engine.

Same rule applies for carbureted cars.

 

That's a new one on me. As a pilot, I was taught that "balls to the wall" phrase came from the throttle/mixture/prop pitch knobs (which are typically red, blue & white balls) being pushed to the firewall when full power was needed. Hence "balls to the wall". I'm sure trains have precedence historically over planes though

 

i run my lawnmower at WOT

it runs bestest that way

 

Speaking of carbs, when you synch your carbs, you may find some butterflies are fully open at WOT and some aren't, at least on my car. I assume this is normal since they need to be balanced.

Ken

 

Great historical info on the origins of "Balls to the Wall" - Thanks! Ya' learn something new everyday around here...

 

These questions are good for all of us. If you think you know it all, you have got it coming to you. I recently made an ass of myself making an assumption on the term "Jimmy Hat". Don't ask.

 

Double de clutching is when you let the clutch pedal up during the middle of a gearchange (while in neutral) then press it down again before engaging the next gear and then letting it up again.
It makes it a lot easier to change down a gear if you don't have synchromesh - or if your synchromesh is worn.

Not sure which bit is de clutching. I'm guessing that when you press the clutch pedal you are declutching - i.e. disengaging the clutch?

 

That is so true!!! And people like the guy answering in a bad way... is the reason why a lot of people don't dare to ask questions!

I don't know many of those terms... mostly because I'm Danish and not familiar with the english terms or slang for things
SO I like this thread... it teaches me some of those terms that I did not dare to ask!!!

 

Sounds like you will be a perfect US Ferrari owner someday...........you will know they look cool, be able to park and pose to perfection.

Just kidding............hang out and learn.

 

Just "double clutching". If you insist using the "de" part then it's "double de-clutching"...which is redundant.

Best site I know of about that topic:
http://318ti.org/notebook/shifting/index.html

 

Sorry about my last post being a double (page 1 of this thread)- my fault, I hit the return button instead of going directly to the page. The Edit button didn’t work when I tried to remove the second post. Go figure. With that said the twin posts leads me up to the next explanation:

Double de clutching? It’s when identical twins, who are having a fight, are finally persuaded to let go of each other......

Having said that the purpose behind my obvious misinformation is humor, there were already a number of correct answers and thus I figured the thread could do with a joke.

Webby, you are right to ask. The only stupid question is an unasked one.

 

Um...WOT is refering to all cars not just Ferraris

 

Yes. When you asked what WOT is and you said you knew alot about Ferrari's but not how they work refring to WOT as if it was simply a Ferarri thing. BOOYAH!

 

I seee you are tryinig to change your words just to try to cover up for yourself when you in reality you said:

you are OWNED! Give up your highschooler you were wrong just take it like a man. It would't take someone such a long explanation to defend yourself if you were really right from the begining.

 

Not Necessary, Not a positive contribution, Not a pertinent reply, Not relevant to the original post or subsequent replies.

 

LOL, that's very mature, congratulations, your parents must be very proud... i had several thousand posts before i could visibly tell the difference between a 308 and a 328... Don't put people down for asking questions and trying to learn something... Who are you...? Who do you think you are to make statements like that...? That you would belittle someone for trying to educate themselves reflects very poorly on the type of person you are... This is probably not the place for you...


Webby, good on you for asking questions - it's the only way to learn... There's no such thing as a stupid question; just a stupid answer... At 26, i know enough to know i don't know much, and so i'm never embarrassed about asking questions and the losers out there (like 16valves) are far and few between...


Tom-F1, a big thumbs up to you for coming forward like that...


Mark - whose username is merely his first name spelled backwards - said it best: The only stupid question is an unasked one.

 

You forgot to tell everyone that in order for this process to work properly, the engine must be on.