first thing it does is want to burn out all that fuel you just dumped in it. That takes 60 engine cycles, so for 60 cycles of the engine going around, it's not going anywhere. So throttle response is also keeping the engine dry.

"The other thing is, when you ease back into the throttle, the carburetor doesn't know if its going 5500 or 3500. It just knows pressure differential. So when the blade angle is down near the idle in the transfer slot, you're really sucking hard on that. The main booster is just seeing the air that's going through the total amount, so you've really got contributions of fuel from the main

1) A dyno doesn't consider closing throttle at peak RPMs for intake track wetting. It takes 60 engine cycles to dry the manifold out after the wetting has stopped. For a carb to perform at its best, that must be taken into account; 2) Even after all of the care spent during build, wetflow calibration and dyno tuning, there is still one ultimate adjustment performed on the dAM carburetor: making sure it works for the customer. (Photos courtesy of dAMBEST)

booster, the transfer slot and the idle. It doesn't make the car respond. So now you have to change the total fuel delivery to respond to the transient throttle if you want it to go fast in the corners and you want it to drive. Driving means that you're easing into and out of the throttle and the car is responding."

What this all comes down to is catering the carburetor to an individual's driving style. Satterfield learned this from working with many multi-car teams, including Dale Earnhardt/Mike Skinner, Bill Elliott/Todd Bodine and the tandem of Ward Burton and Dave Blaney. He noted that one would be smooth and the other would be a throttle-switch guy. Even though they had the same engine builder, they couldn't be more different on the track.

Satterfield cited the case of Burton and Blaney, saying, "Ward was on-and-off the throttle. We put a carburetor on that made more power, but the car was slower. We went to the point of acquisition. Everywhere he was on the throttle the car accelerated, but the problem at Indianapolis was that it would literally lift the left-front tire off the ground and put a push in the car that made it unmanageable, even though it made more power. Ward was either on the throttle or off it. Blaney, on the other hand, would ease in and ease out (of the throttle), and he was fine.

"So here you have two totally different drivers, so you have to build a carburetor that doesn't respond for one and does respond for the other."

What Satterfield is offering on the local level as well is the fact that his carburetors are instantly adjustable to a driver's style, which is especially appealing to teams. He mentioned the Rudalavages-brothers Alan and Jeff-as an example of a team that has learned how to make the adjustments. They own six carburetors and they work closely with Satterfield, who is readily available by phone when they need any fine-tuning.

Even though he has done extensive work with Nextel Cup cars, Satterfield was quick to point out that he had been doing dirt carburetors

all along. As a matter of fact, his first dirt Modified carb was actually a former Cup carb. He just changed the baseplate on it and then set it up to make quick idle adjustments and quick transfer slot adjustments.

"We had a proven performer that we knew worked," he said, "and we were in business." What this all means to a Northeast consumer is that their initial contact is with the network of dealers, who are also trained tuners capable of working with the teams at the track. If there are further questions they are referred to Satterfield.

"What I'm here to offer is any service questions and support," said Satterfield, who adds that he will spend as much time as necessary to support customers.

Presently Satterfield's business is heavily tilted toward all of the dirt divisions, with 90 percent of his carburetors going there and the remainder to the asphalt arena. He did note that he still does Busch North carbs and some for NASCAR Modifieds. There are a number of teams that would attest to that-but as mentioned before, when a team has something that works well they don't necessarily want to share that information with the competition.

As Satterfield points out, "We're becoming the less-best-kept secret."

As he has begun to aggressively pursue the Northeast market, his mantra has become: "The carburetor gets the best out your engine and the best out of you."

"It will get the most out of your engine in the driving condition because that's what we're compromising to," said Satterfield. "If you wanted a dyno carburetor we'd compromise to that, and it will get the most out of you. I can't make you a better driver, I can't make the car handle better and I can't make it a better engine.

"The carburetor comes to the customer, theoretically perfect, because it's not on an engine. The last thing that it leaves is the wet bench. If it needs an adjustment from that point, we can really help because of our other abilities, because of my engine building background."

Satterfield cited the example of a Lebanon Valley Speedway