Sean D, shondoo
Nitro Member
Stage onehanded, maybe. But I believe the shift buttons are on the steering wheel if I'm not mistaken.
Sean D
Nitromater
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A/F and TAFC
- Thread starter Murrieta Mad Man
- Start date
Stage onehanded, maybe. But I believe the shift buttons are on the steering wheel if I'm not mistaken.
Sean D
TooTall999
Nitro Member
I meant the difference between driving a fuel vs. alcohol car. Nitro leaves from an idle, alcohol revs and dumps the clutch.
Hate to show my age, but , not everyone had "buttons" back in the day .. A three speed with levers kept the brake / chute hand pretty busy....
Justin@NRE
Nitro Member
TAFC drivers are some of the biggest purists you'll encounter in drag racing. They love the fact that they drive arguably the most difficult car in drag racing there is to drive, let alone at a Manzo level.
This leads me in to why you won't see it. You can argue costs until you're blue in the face, cost to convert will be big and a manifold for one of those things will cost what a screw blower does.
#1 - Parity - More to police, most TAFC drivers already think it's bad enough they even allow converters in the class. Takes the stage and foot swap totally out of the equation. But they've all been watching the TAD's duke it out and watch the competitive blower car count really dwindle. There might be 5-6 super competitive BAD's left in the country now vs. 60+ AFD's.
#2 - Purists - Probably almost every TAFC driver I know cringes a little bit when they hear an AFD do a burnout. Drivers love their screaming blown Hemi's and the noise along with them along with hitting shifts as you muscle the car down the track. Not to mention, not very many in TAFC know the first thing about running injected Nitro, so from a tuning standpoint it would be starting from scratch.
#3 - Why?!? - I can understand doing it from an S's & G's or just because you can standpoint, but in all honesty, what would doing A/F Funny Cars accomplish? Traditional TAFC's are already showing themselves capable of running within .2 of the #1 in TAD, and in some cases would qualify well into the top half of the TAD field at the same event. And teams are accomplishing this without beating the bearings out of the rods! Unless your tune up is screwed, or somebody didn't torque something, TAFC's really aren't hurting much these days. Latest and greatest engine and part designs are really creating some massive horsepower and Valvetrain technology to match the new stuff has also been incredible. TAFC's are able to make more power, rev way higher and still survive! The gains in TAFC over the last two years have really made it an exciting class just to see who will do what next, let alone the racing. I would rather see Turbos and EFI on TAFC's before they go A/F.
#4 - Fan Experience - I think the purists are right in the sense that part of TAFC's charm is the guys whacking the throttles before bringing the revs up, holding them and staging at 7,000. They are staged above most street cars' redline when they dump the clutch and go wide open. Tell me at least one person in the crowd that doesn't go back to their car to drive home after watching that, look at their tach and go "Holy S$%t!!" They stage higher than an A/Fuel motor typically would ever see except in the lights. lol.
#5 - Again, Why?!? - I don't think you'd pick up any in the car count. If you would, there may be something to it. NHRA also said that allowing converters would allow some TD racers to go TAD racing with their setups and might help bring some more cars out. Still have yet to really see that happen.
This leads me in to why you won't see it. You can argue costs until you're blue in the face, cost to convert will be big and a manifold for one of those things will cost what a screw blower does.
#1 - Parity - More to police, most TAFC drivers already think it's bad enough they even allow converters in the class. Takes the stage and foot swap totally out of the equation. But they've all been watching the TAD's duke it out and watch the competitive blower car count really dwindle. There might be 5-6 super competitive BAD's left in the country now vs. 60+ AFD's.
#2 - Purists - Probably almost every TAFC driver I know cringes a little bit when they hear an AFD do a burnout. Drivers love their screaming blown Hemi's and the noise along with them along with hitting shifts as you muscle the car down the track. Not to mention, not very many in TAFC know the first thing about running injected Nitro, so from a tuning standpoint it would be starting from scratch.
#3 - Why?!? - I can understand doing it from an S's & G's or just because you can standpoint, but in all honesty, what would doing A/F Funny Cars accomplish? Traditional TAFC's are already showing themselves capable of running within .2 of the #1 in TAD, and in some cases would qualify well into the top half of the TAD field at the same event. And teams are accomplishing this without beating the bearings out of the rods! Unless your tune up is screwed, or somebody didn't torque something, TAFC's really aren't hurting much these days. Latest and greatest engine and part designs are really creating some massive horsepower and Valvetrain technology to match the new stuff has also been incredible. TAFC's are able to make more power, rev way higher and still survive! The gains in TAFC over the last two years have really made it an exciting class just to see who will do what next, let alone the racing. I would rather see Turbos and EFI on TAFC's before they go A/F.
#4 - Fan Experience - I think the purists are right in the sense that part of TAFC's charm is the guys whacking the throttles before bringing the revs up, holding them and staging at 7,000. They are staged above most street cars' redline when they dump the clutch and go wide open. Tell me at least one person in the crowd that doesn't go back to their car to drive home after watching that, look at their tach and go "Holy S$%t!!" They stage higher than an A/Fuel motor typically would ever see except in the lights. lol.
#5 - Again, Why?!? - I don't think you'd pick up any in the car count. If you would, there may be something to it. NHRA also said that allowing converters would allow some TD racers to go TAD racing with their setups and might help bring some more cars out. Still have yet to really see that happen.
NHRA simply doesn't want the parity headaches. It took years to get TAD even close, and honestly, I don't believe AFCs would increase car counts or fan interest, either - so why bother with it. Personally, I like them and I like having different combinations. But I can see why NHRA would say NO.
Bill
Nitro Member
I'd say the absolutely, most difficult cars to drive well, would be the turbocharged Pro Mod cars with torque converters and automatic transmissions. They have to face rthe problem of getting the turbos spooled just the right amount for the launch, not an easy thing because they are limited to a 10% engine setback, which limits traction, and, getting tthe car properly staged with just the right amount of deep vs.. shallow staging is problematical. Tire shake, and blowing the tires off the car, is always a real possibility. The fact that the turbo cars have a built-in MPH advantage on the rest of the field, yet, are not consistent winners, points up the fact that the difficulty of drivibg one of these, creates inconsistencies that manifest themselves in a not-so-good win/loss record..... too many driving problems along the way.
Just my 2-cents....
Just my 2-cents....
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Yeah, I didn't want to get too far out there.... So I didn't even mention a four speed with levers either.... Oooorr, Modified Production which is / was a pretty tough deal too, albeit in a different way.... MP was a perfect training ground for BB/FC...
All good points Justin, but I'll tell you what I witnessed first hand, after twenty or so years when we went back and watched a few races.... The wry and amazing smirk that generated from a veteran that has raced A/FC and BB/FC ( and AA/FC ) , when the TADs went up against each other... and through that smirk , he just said "MAN, there aint nothing like nitro.." ...And noone understands the politics , parity, and bullshit more ( towards the end of Pro Comp, there were a couple of National events where we were the only Funny Car qualified..) - I'm just sayin' - A/FC is cool...
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