So why is this safer ? all but a very few are over 300. And 2 are over 316.
All they gain is 320ft. to slow down. Amazing they can go that fast that quick. But safer .... no. Safer would be 275 at 1320, with parachutes that deployed and did not burn off. Catch systems that were up to the task.
Keep the Nitro , drop the compresson. Less people hurt, less parts used.
I remember a article in Car & Driver in the early nineties about Escalating speeds in Top Fuel, and it centered around Gary Ormsby and specifically Lee Beard.
The whole deal then, as now, was the cars being too fast.
The NHRA's insurers were telling them to slow down the cars before they hit 300mph, as if that were a magic barrier that would immediately make the cars rolling deathtraps and endanger each and every spectator.
One option was reducing engine displacement.
I remember Beard commenting (to paraphrase) "They can reduce size to 400 cubes, and I'll spin 'em 1000 rpm faster and still hit 300 no problem".
His point was that the sanctioning body could do whatever they wanted, and they might delay the inevitable, but it would not stop him or any other good crew chief.
NHRA went to 3.20 gears as a "solution"
and the cars took a couple extra years to hit 300.
NHRA can do whatever they can dream of, these cars will slow some, then start hauling ass sooner or later.
Dale Armstrong is undoubtedly a genius, but some where, some one, is out there with a trick or two up their sleeve.
I see a basic problem that a lot of older tracks are unsafe, so, to quote Gary Selzi....... (gotta' argue w/him here
) "a inch is as good as a mile"
As long as these things are straining against the limiter, only bad stuff can result.
JMO
REX
