One of my favorite classes in Drag Racing. No frills, stark, purpose build race cars. The best viewing of these cars are at the finish line...they are running on about 6 inches of tire width and the engine is turning well over 10,000 rpm (this is a blown fuel motor we're talking about). They pop harder than the Funny Cars (my guess due to the smaller displacement and similar pump volume as the FCs). 3-4ft tall headers flames are a guarantee on almost every car at night. I do agree that they would look better if the drivers sat low, slingshot style, and the rear tire tops taller than the cowl. Denver Schutz and the Mr. Boston car driven by Howard Haight still have low driver positions. Personally I dig the canards in front of the tires...it makes them look like modern, functioning race cars. The car counts have declined in the last 5 years, but I really hope there are racers out there that will build some new ones. For the record Tony Bartone is the quickest & fastest with the 5.566 at last year's CHRR (Jack Harris ran a 5.568 in 2008). In testing this year Bartone reportedly ran a 5.54 @ 274...many drivers have been quoted that these are the scariest cars to drive in Drag Racing. Judge for yourself:
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Nostalgia is an unfortunate term for these cars...I like to think of them as a class that uses an old framework of rules to keep costs down.