Ballast Weight: Lead vs Tungsten

[Don]

Comment regarding ballast weight from Grassroots Motorsports:

" If your under the minimum weight " " some teams use sheets of ballast as part of the floor design " " in the lowest portion of the chassis "

" Lead is a cheap and effective ballast weight at 708 pounds per cubic foot, but tungsten is a better and more dense alternative at 1224 pounds per cubic foot. However, tungsten comes at a price: It's sold for about $30 per pound, while lead is under $2 per pound "

First time I had seen a comparison on the physical characteristics of the two metals.

[Jerry Clayton]

some differances that matter---you can get used lead wheel weights from a tire store and melt and pour your own weights but tungsten is hard to find and you can't easily work with it--

also you can get lead in the 5 lb plumbers stores and easily drill a hole thru it for mounting

[FIA-ERA]

Back in the early nineties I was working for Gene Felton Restorations. We restored old Winston Cup cars of the day and I ran across something interesting. I was disassembling a Darrell Waltrip Western Auto car to get ready for repairs and paint. I was stripping the whole car down and went to take the "lead" out of the car. I got my push stick and it wouldn't budge!! After trying for a while I removed this chunk of something, it wasn't lead! When finally came out it just about broke my wrist and when it landed it made a nice ring tone like a forged steel crank! It ended up being Tungsten and a 70 lb piece of it! After Gene called and talked to the old crew chief he verified they had left it in there by mistake! At the time Tungsten was very rare to get in such quantities and also very expensive! I don't think Gene paid more than 10K for the whole race car and there was this Tungsten! I think Ernie Elliott wanted to buy it for $45 a pound to use for engine stuff. This was a real big secret that only a lot of the more well funded teams could afford. The best thing was you could mount this one bar of tungsten in a small exact area to get the side weights/ corner weights were you needed them. But with lead it would take the entire side frame rail to get the same effect thus effecting the whole side and front/ rear corner weights! Absolutely amazing stuff but you also have to build a bracket strong enough to handle the extra load! If my memories right that chunk was 4"X4"x10" or 12" and was that heavy! That same car also had lead weights attached to the wheels on the inside! The tires said Qualify on them to get them through tech and then they would change them. They were about 30lbs heavier than regular wheels and tire combos! Who said Nascar boy's don't cheat a little!! Thanks, Matt

[Don]

Matt, the short article mentioned the flexibility,due to size/density, with tungsten after using the corner weighing scales to set up the race car. In yesterday's NASCAR Nationwide race at Watkins Glenn, a tungsten weight came off and it was obvious the track worker was not expecting the effort to pick up the piece. Mentioned by the TV commentator was the ability to insert the tungsten weight in precise positions of the frame rails to obtain optimum balance.

For the road race, appears the weight was mounted in the center towards the rear of the car, TV showed it dragging prior to dislodging.

[Ralphy]

Used carbide can be bought at your local machine shop at scrap prices. You can drop it into molten lead I suppose.