1000' vs 1320' Poll (1 Viewer)

[FC138fan]

Next idea? Not trying to be a smart a$$ but even Dale's theories wouldn't work for very long with today's crew chiefs. Within a few races NHRA would be trying to figure out how to slow them down again.

His solution fixed the problem at hand, and it isn't as drastic as cutting the race short. His solution might have been better suited back when he proposed it, and might not fix the problems they have developed since then.

 

[PJ]

No new limits does not equal no rules.

It was meant as the current 1000' rules on everything, just letting them go 1320'.

You know that will never happen (TF would be running high 4.3-mid 4.4 at 330mph+ w/current rev limiter and FC low to high 4.6's at 330mph in great conditions) so I don't know why you want to keep track of it. You basically have 2 choices:

1) What we have now

2) 1/4 mile racing with 4.90-5.00 FC's at 290-300mph and 4.70-4.80 TF's at 300 mph

I was wanting a sliding scale rather than blindly picking option A or option B. At what point does it become an issue, was the goal. In your choices, I would be fine with choice 2, although that would be the bottom limit for me

I understand that 1320 with no additional limits, will not happen but you have to have a start on the grid in order to see where things change.

 

[my friends call me Zappy]

and that's with NO BLOWER![/QUOTE

Hey Jeff may have stumbled on to something. Instead of trying g to decide between
Less blower, less overdrive, smaller fuel pump, smaller tires, less track prep, and all the other
Ideas that have been suggested here. We could, with one rule change slow the cars, save the teams money, make it safer, just ban blowers.

Before some of you slash your wrists, think about it a minute. No more F/C body's flying,
Let the crew chiefs figure out what size everything. Also all the A/Fuel cars in TAD would now be in a PRO category. (Can you say 32 car fields?).

Something to think about....

 

[FC138fan]

just ban blowers.
Something to think about....

I'd slash my wrists if they replaced top fuel with injected nitro cars. Completely different sound between the two.

Someone at some point did hint about if you slow TF down, those blown nitro dragsters in the alcohol class might even surpass the kings of the sport.

My answer to that... eliminate injected nitro. Alcohol classes should run alcohol. I wouldn't think a blown alcohol car would ever beat a blown nitro car. I guess you'd have to make sure the volumes of alcohol going into the engine in the alcohol classes would be the same as or less then the volume of nitro going into the fuel engines.

 

[yoda]

there shouldn't be any limits, its how fast you are, if you are scared to drive that fast, then don't drive

Do you really think people think that (I hope no one is)? The way I read it was that further restrictions to further slow down the cars, no one in the right mind thinks they can go to truly unrestricted and return to 1320 or race to 1000ft unrestricted.

Again- if the bean-counters get a call from their insurance company (or God forbid, Goodyear) and are told to slow them down, AGAIN, the cars WILL get slowed down.

Jeff- I bet your boss has a few stories about how it was when the classes were truly unlimited.

 

[yoda]

I'd slash my wrists if they replaced top fuel with injected nitro cars. Completely different sound between the two.

Someone at some point did hint about if you slow TF down, those blown nitro dragsters in the alcohol class might even surpass the kings of the sport.

My answer to that... eliminate injected nitro. Alcohol classes should run alcohol. I wouldn't think a blown alcohol car would ever beat a blown nitro car. I guess you'd have to make sure the volumes of alcohol going into the engine in the alcohol classes would be the same as or less then the volume of nitro going into the fuel engines.

You think the Pro Stock Truck lawsuit was a mess?

 

[FC138fan]

You think the Pro Stock Truck lawsuit was a mess?

At this point, all solutions to this problem get complicated quickly.

Ideally a nudge here and there get the program to the correct destination.

Red flags should have been going up years ago, these cars didn't start blowing up overnight. It feels like things came to a head when Scott Kalitta passed that day in NJ. But prior to that... there were red flags, similar explosions were happening all for similar reasons. Prior to the explosions, there would have been red flags from crew chiefs noticing parts fatigue and damage due to pushing the limits of the components. Red flags in the form of rising budgets due to replacing more and more worn parts.

When Scott died, they finally made a change - the 1000' deal. Which was supposed to be temporary till the addressed the real problem. But - to me anyway - it seems the powers that be again ignored the problem. Either that or any change they propsed got shot down due to imput from drivers, owners, crew chiefs... whatever. Meanwhile as time passes, they are coming right back to the speeds and problems they had just before Scott died.

It seems that the NHRA has been either ignoring the problem, or proposing solutions to the problem but back-tracking due to feedback, all the while the program is getting so far off track sweeping changes need to occur in order to right the ship.

Again from that Dale Armstrong article on what the NHRA needs-

"I think you’ve got to have someone who dictates to these guys, who isn’t afraid of confrontation, who’d say to someone who gave ‘em grief, all you’d have to say one time is “Pack up your stuff and get out of here.” You’d only have to do it once, and it would never happen again."

If they had that person when the red flags started going up, maybe they wouldn't be in the position they are in now.

 

[yoda]

...Again from that Dale Armstrong article on what the NHRA needs-

"I think you’ve got to have someone who dictates to these guys, who isn’t afraid of confrontation, who’d say to someone who gave ‘em grief, all you’d have to say one time is “Pack up your stuff and get out of here.” You’d only have to do it once, and it would never happen again."

If they had that person when the red flags started going up, maybe they wouldn't be in the position they are in now.

I can name at least one multi-car team that would be gone if that person was ever given that kind of authority...

 

[FC138fan]

I can name at least one multi-car team that would be gone if that person was ever given that kind of authority...

Had that mentality been around 10 - 15 years ago one multi car team wouldn't be able to influence the organization's decisions or policies. Reason being there would be many more individual teams around to fill the void.

Nowadays, though perhaps multi-car teams have the organization by the short n curly's. Hence, dealing with the problem today is much more difficult to deal with.

 

[Leebone]

Leave it alone. I got used to 1000 feet!

 

[vegasnitro]

In roughly 12 hours, 83 votes?

I am not surprised ... There are maybe 150 active/regular posters here.

 

[my friends call me Zappy]

. Alcohol classes should run alcohol QUOTE]

I agree 100% how did they ever get mixed together? Talk about apples and oranges...

 

[yoda]

. Alcohol classes should run alcohol QUOTE]

I agree 100% how did they ever get mixed together? Talk about apples and oranges...

Veney, Armstrong, Wild Wilfred days... Pro Comp had injected nitro funny cars back in 73-74 that, because of weight and displacement, ran on par with the BB/FCs, blown AND injected dragsters and the Altereds... Where the train fell off the track is when they split the pipe racks from the floppers, and shoved the altereds into Comp. Dave Settles had a bad azz injected dragster in Pro Comp, and when the classes split, the long cars held on to the injected vs. blown concept, while the floppers battled about which type of blower was going to go on the car...