"The Squid" could help 4 tire pit stops get under 10 seconds

One rumor that has leaked from the garage by a unhappy former crew member is that a former Indy engineer is working on a experimental new air gun for a Nascar team. The new air gun "The Squid" is alot heavier than the standard Nascar air gun because it has individual power driven sockets that will allow each bolt to be removed simutaneously with the touch of a trigger. The trigger will spin each socket at the same time allowing a tire changer to remove all the bolts on a tire in the time it takes to remove one. It's rumored to remove all 4 tires from a car in less than 5 seconds with 2 tire changers.

"The Squid" has one big challenge, putting bolts back on. A team would have to put bolts back on the way the do now with a individual air gun or figure out a way to align bolts with a Squid. Currently bolts are glued to the rim and a tire changer individually screws them on one at a time. Because the Squid is so heavy it tends to knock bolts loose from the rim when under timed pressure. If the Squid can overcome the putting tires on issue, then crews will have to work on getting fuel into the car faster, otherwise they'll be waiting on the fuel and not the tires.

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Permalink Reply by SlyFoxx on April 13, 2009 at 1:30pm
Holy Torque Wrench Batman!

That will be a nice crewman title..."Squid Man" .
Permalink Reply by Walt Pendleton on April 13, 2009 at 1:40pm
That reminds me of the Craftsman robot guy with many arms
Permalink Reply by Kevin Sweeney on April 13, 2009 at 1:52pm
i was just thinking that
Permalink Reply by C2B on April 13, 2009 at 4:13pm
They need two Squids, one to take the lugs off and one preloaded with lug nuts to put the tire back on. They could wear them on a holster. As fas as the weight goes, these guys work out so they should be able to handle it.
Permalink Reply by Lance on April 13, 2009 at 4:32pm
Does anyone honestly think Nascar will approve this?
Permalink Reply by John on April 13, 2009 at 5:39pm
I vote no. Not that it matters, but the pit crew is part of the show. Those guys are athletes and the skills they show during pit stops shouldn't be made easier by a gadget like this. I'll believe this thing has a shot when Nascar allows EFI.
Permalink Reply by Mike/WC77 on April 13, 2009 at 5:39pm
I think nascar has elected to stay with 5 lug rims for a reason. Otherwise wouldn't it be just as effective to go to a single hub bolt?
Ya know this story reminds me of a Simpsons re-run that was on the other day. Zoom, you should change your name to "Mr. X"
....squidman, lmao
Permalink Reply by Matt on April 13, 2009 at 5:57pm
Yea, that was my thought, they keep it 5 lugs for a number of reasons, one is control the time of pit stops. Its seems odd to me that it took a former Indy car engineer to come up with this concept and design it. We are not talking rocket science here.

Perhaps others had the same idea, went to Nascar and asked about its legality, and the powers that be said they would ban it if created. If Nascar wanted faster pit stops/equalized time, they could go to a single center lug format for the cars like other series have. It will honestly take one team taking one of these devices off the truck during a race weekend for Nascar to ban it, so I am not quite sure why time was spent proving the concept. Design, haha, sounds more like someone was messing around in the machine shop after hours playing around with some old air tools.

As far as the fuel is concerned, teams cannot over come Nascar specified dump cans and approved fuel recpeticals for the cars. Again this is an area Nascar polices to keep pit stops at a certain time frame, mostly for safety reasons. Unless teams modify the fuel fillers and/or dump cans, or somehow can increase the force of gravity (hence dump cans instead of fueling hoses and rigs with pumps), this is a moot point.

Where did this article come from? I read it a few hours ago and just chuckled, but now I re-read it and it seems a bit ridiculous.
Permalink Reply by FlyHiFlyLo on April 13, 2009 at 5:54pm
I thought of this many years ago. 5 sockets with a gear at the end of each socket, then one gear in the center counter rotating.... Big problem is getting all the nuts to tighten the same. Each socket gear would need tourqe sensing.

Anyways, there is another way I thought of to knock 2-3 seconds off a pit stop.... RG is just being a puss about using it in battle. :)
Permalink Reply by R. ALDRIDGE on April 14, 2009 at 12:34am
Am I missing the joke? Where do you get the 2 or 3 seconds?
Permalink Reply by Fast Eddie on April 13, 2009 at 6:27pm
Way back the AMC Matador driven by Bobby Allison showed up at Riverside ( I think) with three studs per wheel, same as the factory Matador. The team also had a lug gun with three sockets running at once. Guess what, NASCAR said no. Would be a shame to turn the pitstop into something out of Formula 1 or CART. Yes CART, Indycar can pound sand.
Permalink Reply by Matt on April 13, 2009 at 6:39pm
Yep, like I said hardly a new concept, and something that Nascar will instantly say no to once it shows up at the track.

I wonder where this article originated.

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