A Big Whale Tale???
Oh, I don't know. I sort of like the look. Sometimes, when you get used to the look of something, anything else looks funny. The mile high dual strut arrangement in use today had been around for a looooong time. I'd imagine that if someone who hadn't watched drag racing since the early eighties showed up at a strip today, they'd think the mile high wings in use these days look pretty outrageous.
Wings in 1980.
wings 26 years later.
A lot higher, bigger and more complicated. (That same fan may think that new bug catcher scoop looks pretty outrageous too!!)
After a first look at the pics posted (Thanks Kel!) I'd say that in addition to being a potentially safer design, this may very well provide a chance to perhaps clean up the airflow around what has traditionally been a very "dirty" area, aerodynamics-wise, of a modern T/F dragster. Besides, put a coat of good paint on it, and I think it's going to look good. It somewhat reminds me of the streamlined housings they used to use to cover the parachutes on the Tom Hanna bodied cars
way back in the front motored days.
I've seen lots of things through the years, including Garlit's canopy (Geeze, his name just keeps popping up thoughout this discussion, doesn't it?!?!?) the one piece body, etc, and when push comes to shove and the racingbegins in Pamona, they're put back in the trailer to gather dust because A: Teams don't want to be doing R&D during the active season, and B: Yep, you guessed it, that 1,000 ton gorilla,
weight.
When all is said and done, I'd think that in spite of what shake out from this, everyone should be able to agree that Don "Big Daddy" Garlits can be credited with running the first
workable iteration of this idea. Again.
