Re: for those wondering, the drama in PSM is real, and you could build and race a Har
How about: "the Emperor has no clothes?"
I listen in vain for ANY ESPN II announcer to educate the viewing public as to just how inefficient, poorly-engineered, and patheic these 2-cylinder Harley-based bokes are, compared with the 4-cylinder counterparts.
The only reason they ever have a PRAYER against the Jap bikes is because of the HUGE handicap the NHRA rulebook gives them to ensure some sort of parity in the Eliminator. NHRA has done a good job of creating the potential for equal performance between the different powerplants, because as evidenced by the lack of one type of engine's domination, on any given day, the winner might well, be a Harley, OR a Suzuki.
I have NO problem with that. That's as it should be, I think.
But, Joe Blow Spectator from the grandstand, or on TV, only sees these two different types of bikes running near-identical times, and having no NHRA rulebook to look up the parameter of the class, assumes that a Harley engine is somehow the equal of a 4-cylinder Japanese powerplant when it comes to output. What else is he going to think????
Well, if the people announcing the event were doing their job, part of which is to educate the listening public to what is going on on the track, they might point out that the old rule of thumb that for any given displacement, the more cylinders an engine has, the more power it will make, and to allow a variety of types of motorcycles to race each other, some adjustments have to be made.
For example, if a Harley Pro Stock motorcycle had to carry an equal amount of weight-per-cubic-inch as a Suzuki, it would have to weigh a whopping 955 pounds, instead of the 640 it legally carires! Or, put aother way, if the Suzuki bikes only had to carry as much weight per cubic inch as the Harleys, they could race at 400 pounds instead of the rules-mandated 575/595 (depending on which engine.)
Of course, there would be NO Harleys racing under those rules, and I am in NO WAY, advocating a change to anything like that.
I am not for changing anything.
I just think that instead of this charade/sham that goes on continually, with no mention of this necessary legislated inequity by the announcers, at some point in every race, the disparity should be exposed, in the interest of truth.
They could be running Ford Flatheads in Pro Stock with the same kind of deal.
Just make the weight breaks BIG enough, and they'd run toe-to-toe with the DRCE derivitaves and "new" Hemis...
If they did that, don't you think it would be incumbent on the announcers to explain WHY and HOW that were possible???
That's essentially what we have in Pro Stock bike...
My 2-cents...
Bill, in Conway, Arkansas
