This conversation isn't going anywhere but does reek of job security for certain folks...quote taken from Utterback who drives a fuel car....
Bottom line----Only Murf's car are breaking----Bartone had a worse tire failure and they are still using their Plueger Chassis....
I am sure Force wishes Plueger would go back to building him cars....IMO
Plueger says if he is required to heat treat the two chassis he has on the jig he will cut them up and make nostalgia funny cars out of them and be done with it.
On another board someone admits that the only heat treated tubes in JF's cars were the upper and lower frame rails. Not being totally privy to all that, aren't those the frame rails that broke?
A phrase is being coined by a few of the major chassis builders who were told their opinions were "irrelevant" back when the heat treat issue was first discussed is this: In refering to heat treated 4130 (considering that non-heated treated tubing is 4130 or 4130N normalized) the heat treated welded tubing in the future should be refered to as "Abnormalized."
While several seem to think all chassis builders use the same design in FC, it simply isn't true. Side by side comparisons will show you significant design differences. Very significant. The only similarity is where the driver is positioned (even the tubes around the driver are different). Other than that they are not the same.
Having said that, we have seen that Steve Plueger's cars with John Force at the wheel have gone through some very violent episodes and have not come close to self destructing. The reason? Scroll back through the posts and reread my bridge analogy. The two bridges built in 1906.
Here in California we have seen older bridges go through extensive earthquake retrofits as more and more is learned about seismic loads. However, we see adjacent bridges which remain untouched. Why? Because the engineers got them right the first time.
While we applaud all those involved in the scurry to make safe the funny car chassis already in the field by adding a spaghetti-like complilation of tubes and brackets in the driver's compartment, we have to ask ourselves one question. Could the biggest leap forward actually be listening to the larger group and their vast experience, plus the engineers with doctorates and stress analysis equipment who are encouraging a leap backwards. A leap back to a point we never should have left in the first place?
Has John Force ever fallen out of any of Plueger's cars when he blew the tires and flipped them over? Did Del ever get launched out of any of his multiple chassis bending wrecks? Al Hoffman hit the opening of the guardrail at who knows where at almost 300 miles per hour and the car saved his life. What other wreck made us hold our collective breath more than that one? Mike Dunn "walked" away from some nasty FC wrecks, too. Isn't he the one who rode out an engine explosion that actually threw the engine OUT OF THE CAR, yet the frame remained intact and saved his life? 28 years and no fatalities. Now we have a problem? What changed? We know the answer I believe.
For some reason in an effort to take chassis technology to the next level have we fallen off the ladder and hit ourselves in the @$$. Time to admit something is wrong and be man enough to admit it.
RG
