Calling Mr. Beard

[yoda]

I'd be interested to see his Atlanta report on the state of the nitro classes... Particularly the ones that seemed to be producing a lot of shrapnel....

 

[kansasnitro54]

3 booms by the DSR cars. Tim Wilkerson a half boom (broken cam)
Last tim(fwiw) a Toyota body went BOOM was when?????
They talk about making'stronger parts" so they do not go boom...... Thats like packing a grenade TIGHTER and the results MORE damage and shrapnel.......
Heard they HAVE the thicker manifolds and the 4 burst panels on it.............
Liek Tim Wilkerson said,this has got to be stopped......

 

[SoCal Racer]

Just thinking out loud here, but they keep building a bigger bomb and then try to build a better bomb containment system. Why not just take some of the bomb away? Instead of spinning the blowers 50% over, why not limit them to, say, 35%? Nah, that makes too much sense.

 

[vegasnitro]

Just thinking out loud here, but they keep building a bigger bomb and then try to build a better bomb containment system. Why not just take some of the bomb away? Instead of spinning the blowers 50% over, why not limit them to, say, 35%? Nah, that makes too much sense.

I think that was Beckman's point at Atlanta ... The parts are so much better now than in years past that it allows them to run them so much harder and blow them up that much bigger. So the question is a fundamental one ... Do you want the cars to continue to improve under the current rules and push the edge of the envelope, or do you want to slow them down and take way so much performance that it may never again become a big part of the top level of the sport (record speeds and ETs)? There are no easy answers, and no matter what NHRA does, they are going to p!ss off a lot of people.

 

[StockersRock]

Do you want the cars to continue to improve under the current rules and push the edge of the envelope, or do you want to slow them down and take way so much performance that it may never again become a big part of the top level of the sport (record speeds and ETs)? There are no easy answers, and no matter what NHRA does, they are going to p!ss off a lot of people.

Even though the "200mph" number was a big selling point for NASCAR for many years, they felt the need to back it down after Bobby Allison nearly went into the grandstands. If NHRA wants to get nitro class participation up, costs down, and keep butts in the seats (that aren't stubborn to rule changes), then any change to ensure durability (and also a higher percentage of side by side races) is hard to argue (unless you are a crew chief, I suppose). If people (or NHRA marketing brass) are merely stuck on the numbers, then maybe they should just run time trials. If it's about two cars, racing side by side to determine a winner, than I see nothing terrible about backing them down and giving them a little headroom to play with.

 

[James]

As far as records go you just reset the national records and performance barriers can still be broken.

 

[T.Smith]

Just thinking out loud here, but they keep building a bigger bomb and then try to build a better bomb containment system. Why not just take some of the bomb away? Instead of spinning the blowers 50% over, why not limit them to, say, 35%? Nah, that makes too much sense.

I doubt anyone is spinning their blower at 50% over.

 

[Muddy]

Once again all that is required to slow them down is to limit the size of the fuel tank. The crew chiefs will do what's necessary to keep from running out of fuel on a lap which by the way makes a nitro blown motor most unhappy.

 

[Just Paul]

If people have not read Dale Armstrong's interview at Competition Plus on slowing the cars down from a few years back, look it up. It's worth the 5 minutes.

 

[yoda]

Slowing them down?
That's not the point of this thread....

Clipper gets it...

 

[Toejam]

Just thinking out loud here, but they keep building a bigger bomb and then try to build a better bomb containment system. Why not just take some of the bomb away? Instead of spinning the blowers 50% over, why not limit them to, say, 35%? Nah, that makes too much sense.

What do think 90% was all about?

 

[SoCal Racer]

I doubt anyone is spinning their blower at 50% over.

From the 2013 NHRA rule book General Regulations Section 20 1:10: "For Top Fuel and Funny Car, overdrive may not exceed 1.50 except in Denver, where 1.70 is the maximum."

Doesn't mean they are spinning them 50% or 70% over, or doing it all the time, but I've noticed those top pulleys getting smaller and smaller over the years. And the reason for this rule was in response to runaway overdrive percentages by tuners...

What do think 90% was all about?

90% does reduce overall power production and takes some the stress away from the bottom end, but doesn't really make any difference in the blower explosion problem, which is primarily what the OP was commenting on.

And no, I'm not talking about slowing the cars down... this time ...but it would obviously be a consequence of taking power away.

 

[T.Smith]

From the 2013 NHRA rule book General Regulations Section 20 1:10: "For Top Fuel and Funny Car, overdrive may not exceed 1.50 except in Denver, where 1.70 is the maximum."

Doesn't mean they are spinning them 50% or 70% over, or doing it all the time, but I've noticed those top pulleys getting smaller and smaller over the years. And the reason for this rule was in response to runaway overdrive percentages by tuners...

This is what you said "Instead of spinning the blowers 50% over, why not limit them to, say, 35%? Nah, that makes too much sense."

I'm telling you know one is spinning their blowers at 50% over...because the blowers are much better now, then what they were when this rule was put in place, which I think was a response to the tuners (I personally think it was just one team doing this) running a blower at 50% over after the nitro percentage rule was dropped to 85%.

Your thought of limiting the overdrive to 35% doesn't make sense, because that is where some teams currently spin their blowers.

 

[StockersRock]

And no, I'm not talking about slowing the cars down... this time ...but it would obviously be a consequence of taking power away.

That's more where I was trying to get at with my statement as well. But what the marketing effects would hold as well. I do notice that the NitroMall has less "Speed Limit 350mph" merchandise than they've had in the past.

 

[turbo ken]

One 44 amp mag, max of 18.99% over on the blower, cap off one inlet & outlet of the current fuel pump, and let them go from there (+ costs them no real extra $$ to change).

 

[Nick Name]

One 44 amp mag, max of 18.99% over on the blower, cap off one inlet & outlet of the current fuel pump, and let them go from there (+ costs them no real extra $$ to change).

There are simply not enough top running nitro V-Twins to do that. They are running them in some NHRA events, and only getting 4 or 5 hitters.

 

[turbo ken]

There are simply not enough top running nitro V-Twins to do that. They are running them in some NHRA events, and only getting 4 or 5 hitters.

The same amount of hitters that PSB has, all the rest of the class are filler.

 

[Nick Name]

Not so. Half the field is a full second off the hitters

 

[SoCal Racer]

This is what you said "Instead of spinning the blowers 50% over, why not limit them to, say, 35%? Nah, that makes too much sense."

I'm telling you know one is spinning their blowers at 50% over...because the blowers are much better now, then what they were when this rule was put in place, which I think was a response to the tuners (I personally think it was just one team doing this) running a blower at 50% over after the nitro percentage rule was dropped to 85%.

Your thought of limiting the overdrive to 35% doesn't make sense, because that is where some teams currently spin their blowers.

I'm not really trying to argue the specific percentages - it's the principle that matters; namely that reducing allowable overdrive would result in less/ less violent blower explosions. That's all.

 

[vegasnitro]

I'm not really trying to argue the specific percentages - it's the principle that matters; namely that reducing allowable overdrive would result in less/ less violent blower explosions. That's all.

In theory, but not in application. The crew chiefs aren't just going to give up performance in one area without trying to recover it in another. More fuel, more spark and/or more clutch. It may prevent some boomers to slow down the blowers, but it will create them in other areas. Hopefully they would be less violent, but I am not convinced they would be less frequent.