I allways find these pro nitro vs nolstagia nitro arguments quite interesting . Not meaning to offend anybody but sometimes some bitterness comes through in the argument from the view that nitro racing used to be something that any dedicated person could have a go at and over time like most other motorsports it has gone away from that .
I am only a 20 year old fan but I love nitro funny cars both modern and old . I love the history of drag racing . I personally dont think it has gone away from the average person . I think it just depends on how dedicated you want to be .
I think if someone with a bit of mechanical knowledge and ability wanted to go nitro racing or alcohol racing and they were willing to be totally dedicated to it then they could do it . I am not meaning have a flash truck or trailer and flash motorhomes I am meaning being your own driver , being your own crew chief , being your own car builder , sleeping at the track in tents and eating from packed sandwiches and from the concession stand . I am meaning doing as much as you can yourself . I think if someone was really wanting to be dedicated to doing it its possible . I could be saying a load of crap I am only 20 what do I know , but what I do know is I fully intend to try and be that person one day at least try to .
Its not like you cant buy the parts everything needed to build a nitro car is available to the public . Though the one thing I know is you have to be smart and I mean treat it as a science smart .
Someone is going to reply to this and say yeah but with the stuff you need today like flow benches and blower and clutch dynos and stuff its so expensive well my reply is find out how those things work and build your own .
I am currently unemployed so for me drag racing is a pipe dream but as soon as I get a job again , I will be buying up parts and be building up some sort of a drag car so that I can work towards my dream . I just dont want to be that guy that looks back in 40 years and thinks "I wish I had just tried"
There is some truth to this, that if you want it bad enough, work hard enough for it, you have a chance of achieving it as opposed to just sitting on your butt wishing and watching others. That said, go back to my earlier post on the experience had in going alky racing. I was living in an appartment, sparse conditions, driving a beat up car, putting all I could make, save, sacrifice into buying the best stuff I could get (got the reciepts from Bob Newberry to prove it). However, as much as I was trying, I started the project at a time when the new parts technology for the class went vertical. I budgeted for a good hi-helix retro blower, as that is what you needed. I could not afford more than one, as the hitters had 3-4, but when you pull up to the line, you only go up with one of each; doesn't matter what is back in the trailer. So that was the thinking, but what I didn't expect was NHRA allowing the screw blower back into the class, and when that happened, that budget for a good roots blower increased 4 times as much, since you had better step up with a PSI or Whipple. I just could not make enough, fast enough to buy one of those. Hell, just the cost of one of those blowers was half the cost of what I paid for the rolling chassis. Forget the fact that you had to step up with a better fuel pump, ignition, fuel timers, additional wear on disks/floaters, etc. You see, it wasn't just the cost to buy the blower, but the domino effect it had financially on the cost of a decent car in the class.
Now, I have also been witness to the effort in running a fuel funny car in the big show. I've seen this up close, as the rig and car live at my house. The insanity that has resulted is proof that unless you have a crap load of cash to put together a car with some decent parts, purchased second hand, even then you are dealing with a car that goes through parts like candy wrappers. You have to have enough to feed the thing, run after run.
Now, with a nostalgia nitro funny car, there are caps/limits on the basic car. Much is eliminated to prevent the domino effect from happening. 21 gal pump, 6-71 blower, 2 spd trans, 3 disk/6 lever clutch, single point style mag ignition, no fuel management, no clutch management. Ignition and leanouts are driver controlled. This basically keeps things from getting out of control. You can spend a pile of cash on a tricked out, carbon body, but the quickest car out there uses a boxy, fiberglass body. In fact Bucky's car is one of the most stripped down, simplistic cars running,, showing that it is possible for guys like me to do the same.
So there you go, an honest comparison to help establish a reasonable perspective.
