something(s) has to be done! And Fast! (2 Viewers)

[Clark W.]

For the life of me, I cannot understand our beloved sport. We are self-destructing right before our eyes. T-Ped made some interesting statements about nitro racing after his blowup in Houston. The quality of our product is getting worse. We must get these cars under control before all we have racing them are 4 or 5 owners and only 2 with a chance to win (about what we have now). Its getting very serious and we need some drastic action. Nascar slowed their cars down years ago and race on the same tracks, and have prospered. We keep getting faster, racing to 1000', blowing up more stuff, and less side by side racing. Somebody please take charge of this before its to late. We have very intelligent people in this sport and its time to get back our roots. We must have rules to protect ourselves - from ourselves. Lets slow down the cars to the (4.50 - 300MPH) range, lower the RPM and GPM, make it more affordable with a spec engine, get back to 1320', and get some new faces interested with 24 to 26 cars showing up to qualify and some side by side racing. Is it too late to save this sport as we "used to" know it?

 

[Toejam]

I think Tony's comments were about his Lack of Money, and how he doesn't have the $$$ to run like he used to! He never said those comments after his Worse blow-up at Pomona in '08 did he? Besides, how often are we seeing Force's cars Blow up?

 

[Frank]

He did say that at Pomona Joe. He asked John to do something to slow the cars down since he believes NHRA will/would listen to Mr. Force. That is one of the reasons John was so upset with Tony during the whole Indy fiasco last year. John felt him and Tony were such good friends that it surprised him with the way the whole Indy thing played out.

 

[Nick Name]

Nitro racers have been blowing stuff up for 60+ years.

 

[Toejam]

Nitro racers have been blowing stuff up for 60+ years.

Really, when you look at some of the Boomers we saw in the 70-80's when they weren't running but 20-30 GPM!

 

[Rajunz]

I agree with the original post 100%. The magic number for most casual fans seems to be 300mph. That will keep the interest in the sport, bring down the costs and also a return to 1/4 mile racing. I know that NHRA has put alot of effort into testing a new spec. motor last year, but there seems to be no more news on that lately.

 

[Rajunz]

Really, when you look at some of the Boomers we saw in the 70-80's when they weren't running but 20-30 GPM!

Parts needed to be improved upon. There will always be a weak link, however, the parts that are out there now, could live a very long life without being pushed to their absolute limits.

 

[Clark W.]

Nitro racers have been blowing stuff up for 60+ years.

I agree, but the quality of the parts was nowhere near what it is today. If we back them down (control or limit) the tune-ups, I just think many of our problems will take care of themselves and the racing will be better. I would like to see nitro racing continue for another 60 years!

 

[johnny]

Nitro racers have been blowing stuff up for 60+ years.

I (as a very very young youth), remember vivdly watching Jay and his friends at Lions. If there is anybody who knows this topic, It's Jay.

 

[FC138fan]

Its been discussed on here before, so Ill resurface it on this thread.

Why don't they just roll back the technology? Maybe back to when FC's were running around 300 and dragsters ran 310 - maybe like 1995 or so. Whatever they were running back then make that the standard.

In FC, maybe its time for another revolution.. like when KB ran the batmobile, it was revolutionary. Well take the batmobile style back out of it and run mid 80's style body standards on todays production cars. The retro body style would produce less downforce, and well pretty much force everyone to dial it back.

Maybe some advances in technology like the super high carbon fiber blower, the setback supercharger, the whatever stage clutch system, the insane volume fuel pumps, whatever little things that were advanced that I don't know about.

To those who say it will take years of testing and whatnot and throw it away... From my perspective (a fan) I don't care. Start from scratch, it will make the playing field level. The sport has become a few monopoly teams racing eachother and winning every week. How boring is that (on TV).

In my opinion the things that need to be kept are the noise and speed. Keep the Nitro % as high as it can be and keep the speeds over 300. It would be nice to see a variety of drivers win too, watching the same 3 or 4 win every single event is boring.

 

[mastertone]

I'd rather see Top Fuel running the 1320 again at no quicker than say 4.75 and Funny car no quicker than 4.90 and have maybe 20 to 25 cars a race trying to qualify in each. SLOW THEM DOWN! Hell I remember when Garlits ran a 6.21 at Indy in 1971 and we were sitting in the stands in disbelief! Believe me you youngsters, it was just as exciting then!

 

[n/a]

For the life of me, I cannot understand our beloved sport. We are self-destructing right before our eyes. T-Ped made some interesting statements about nitro racing after his blowup in Houston. The quality of our product is getting worse. We must get these cars under control before all we have racing them are 4 or 5 owners and only 2 with a chance to win (about what we have now). Its getting very serious and we need some drastic action. Nascar slowed their cars down years ago and race on the same tracks, and have prospered. We keep getting faster, racing to 1000', blowing up more stuff, and less side by side racing. Somebody please take charge of this before its to late. We have very intelligent people in this sport and its time to get back our roots. We must have rules to protect ourselves - from ourselves. Lets slow down the cars to the (4.50 - 300MPH) range, lower the RPM and GPM, make it more affordable with a spec engine, get back to 1320', and get some new faces interested with 24 to 26 cars showing up to qualify and some side by side racing. Is it too late to save this sport as we "used to" know it?

I agree with everything you've said here...
But nothings going to happen "UNTIL IT IS TOO LATE".

The topic of change and improvements to the fuel classes has been talked to death during this last few years and still we haven't seen anything come of it.

The cars are still too fast, too quick and the costs are too f'n expensive for more than the same 14 - 17 cars to show up.

I don't even watch it on espn / tv any longer (but that's another topic unto itself).

Larry Fulton

 

[Toejam]

I don't care what kind of rules the NHRA can come up with, the tuners will find more Horsepower! Remember how clean 90% Nitro was for about 6-8 races till the Tuner's learned the Combo? These guys are always going to find ways to go faster!

 

[d'kid]

or you could just take away the timer box... and on car data collecting, except the Ford 'Black' Box for accident data recovery.
No controls that are not manually operated.
just saying thank you to Kenny and Dale.

And Stop Gluing the Track 20 times a day.

d'kid

 

[Tim5636sc]

Nitro racers have been blowing stuff up for 60+ years.

NITRO is just like Diesel.. it's a solvent. Introduce a Solvent into an engine and it dilutes the OIL and thus the metals in the engine can not be effectively lubricated. When this occurs, it creates friction, then heat then eventually failure of ferris based and other metal materials....(Bearings, Rods, Pistons, Push Rods, Valves...name it... they all suffer from cylinder wash)

Seems to me, this has been the root problem in working with Nitro for ever. Fix the root problem, perhaps other things will improve? What's that saying, sometimes the simplest solution is the right one?

 

[Sean D, shondoo]

I posted the following on another thread and I think it applies on this one:

I didn't make any fans when I said it a couple of years ago, and probably wont' now. But I still think it's time to entertain traction control on the nitro cars. The racing would tighten up, a good percentage of the engine failures would reduce, thus, reducing the net downtime we currently have for clean-ups. You couple that with a good spec engine program that will get us back to 1,320' and I think the show really comes around. I tell people all the time that there is simply nothing like two nitro cars thundering by you in the grandstands, but unfortunately that's a rare occurrence these days.

Sean D

 

[FuelFC]

Its been discussed on here before, so Ill resurface it on this thread.

Why don't they just roll back the technology? Maybe back to when FC's were running around 300 and dragsters ran 310 - maybe like 1995 or so. Whatever they were running back then make that the standard.....

NICK! Hey! Are you crazy? That could never wor..... well it could but... well that is just plain stup...

Geez man you are way out there. God forbid the cars kind of looked like cars somewhat again and rear decks/spoiler area and proportions were not cartoons. And then you want subject people to full cans of nitro and noise and thunder and good fairly safe times and speeds and 1/4 mile again and...teams saving money and parts, less problems... What exactly is wrong with you?

Good to see ya Nick, now quit it with the common sense type stuff or you're gonna end up like that Newman character or Virgil.

 

[Bross Hawg]

NITRO is just like Diesel.. it's a solvent. Introduce a Solvent into an engine and it dilutes the OIL and thus the metals in the engine can not be effectively lubricated. When this occurs, it creates friction, then heat then eventually failure of ferris based materials....(Bearings, Rods, Pistons, Push Rods, Valves...name it... they all suffer from cylinder wash)

Seems to me, this has been the root problem in working with Nitro for ever. Fix the root problem, perhaps other things will improve? What's that saying, sometimes the simplest solution is the right one?

umm...just to point out, rods and pistons (aluminum), and valves (titanium), are NON ferris materials...just keepin' it real!

 

[Bross Hawg]

I posted the following on another thread and I think it applies on this one:

I didn't make any fans when I said it a couple of years ago, and probably wont' now. But I still think it's time to entertain traction control on the nitro cars. The racing would tighten up, a good percentage of the engine failures would reduce, thus, reducing the net downtime we currently have for clean-ups. You couple that with a good spec engine program that will get us back to 1,320' and I think the show really comes around. I tell people all the time that there is simply nothing like two nitro cars thundering by you in the grandstands, but unfortunately that's a rare occurrence these days.

Sean D

Hey Sean...just for sumpn fun...do a google search on traction control. It will blow you away what is available. I would bet alot of money that it has been and is still being used...try finding it!!!

 

[afx421]

your right, something has to be done! the sport is falling apart- paul page, 1,000 ft racing, 4 lane racing, endless interviews, dumbeddown telecasts- where has drag racing gone