farmje
Nitro Member
Here is something that has been on my mind since a conversation that my wife and I had regarding the recent events surrounding the death of Scott Kalitta.
The National Hot Rod Association has always centered around racing. Creating the greatest show on the planet, with the greatest people on the planet.
But somewhere along the way, these cars have gotten so fast, that instead of it being about "racing" it's about science. Creating the fastest combination, using the right amount of weight/balance differential, clutch setup, blower drive, etc. (I probably sound retarded, because I don't know what all goes into a pass, but hopefully you get the point.) Now, we are now talking about engineering related to these cars to make them safer.
The National Hot Rod Association should be more like the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
When you think about the launch of a space shuttle, you have engineers analyzing EVERY aspect of the launch. They not only talk about what went wrong, but they talk about every little thing that could go wrong. And then they spend hours making sure that if that thing that could go wrong does, they know how to fix it. They talk about it. They analyze it. They over-analyze it. And they make sure that if something did happen, it would be fixed.
This is NOT a bash on the NHRA thread. But I believe that the NHRA needs to invest the money (not the teams who lose drivers), but the NHRA themselves needs to invest money in engineering in making sure that if something does go wrong, we can fix it.
We shouldn't have lost Eric to figure out the padding around the drivers head needed to be thicker.
We shouldn't have lost Scott to figure out that many other things need to be changed.
There needs to be people analyzing the runs to talk about what "could" go wrong -- and then fix it before it does.
I am so glad that Ford has the blue box program. I know that many other teams analyze as well...but I would bet if we spent the kind of money that NASA does, we wouldn't have as many issues with fatalities as we have here lately.
Anybody with me?
The National Hot Rod Association has always centered around racing. Creating the greatest show on the planet, with the greatest people on the planet.
But somewhere along the way, these cars have gotten so fast, that instead of it being about "racing" it's about science. Creating the fastest combination, using the right amount of weight/balance differential, clutch setup, blower drive, etc. (I probably sound retarded, because I don't know what all goes into a pass, but hopefully you get the point.) Now, we are now talking about engineering related to these cars to make them safer.
The National Hot Rod Association should be more like the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
When you think about the launch of a space shuttle, you have engineers analyzing EVERY aspect of the launch. They not only talk about what went wrong, but they talk about every little thing that could go wrong. And then they spend hours making sure that if that thing that could go wrong does, they know how to fix it. They talk about it. They analyze it. They over-analyze it. And they make sure that if something did happen, it would be fixed.
This is NOT a bash on the NHRA thread. But I believe that the NHRA needs to invest the money (not the teams who lose drivers), but the NHRA themselves needs to invest money in engineering in making sure that if something does go wrong, we can fix it.
We shouldn't have lost Eric to figure out the padding around the drivers head needed to be thicker.
We shouldn't have lost Scott to figure out that many other things need to be changed.
There needs to be people analyzing the runs to talk about what "could" go wrong -- and then fix it before it does.
I am so glad that Ford has the blue box program. I know that many other teams analyze as well...but I would bet if we spent the kind of money that NASA does, we wouldn't have as many issues with fatalities as we have here lately.
Anybody with me?
