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I know this thread is primarily discussing streamlined cars & designs, but someone mentioned the smaller front wheels too.

If memory serves me correctly, they went away primarily due to the loss of rollout with the smaller tires. I also recall Jim Head saying the bigger front tires allowed him to better control the car when it was carrying the front end because he thought they acted like rudders... not sure if they did or not, but I seem to recall him thinking they did.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming...:)
 
Robert Post's book "High Performance," an excellent history of the evolution of drag cars, discusses all the various iterations of streamlined dragsters through the years. From Robert "Jocko" Johnson's streamliners of the 50's to the faired-and-canopied dragsters of Garlits and Ormsby, they simply haven't worked. The reasons have been mentioned above (weight, etc.). Dragsters are a very different breed from almost any other race car. Their entire purpose is to accelerate, not slip through the air at a constant speed or stay glued to the track through corners. What works for other racers may be counterproductive for a dragster. Will cars become more "slippery" in the future? Perhaps. But it will come through minor, incremental changes to the current design in my opinion. As most who have tried to revolutionize dragster design in the past have found, there is a reason cars have been designed as they are for the past few decades.
 
Registered member said:
...and don't forget. Revolution in drag racing is discouraged by NHRA as a method of keeping costs in check in nitro racing!;) It's almost a catch 22 from my perspective. We could make them safer and cheaper(a VERY large maybe) if we could afford to experiment today. It's just very difficult for a Pro team to try innovative ideas and still afford to race the car of today.
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As many posters have noted, weight was the problem. And not so much because of the body panels but all the tubing that had to be used to support those panels. Maybe with carbon fibre components streamlining just might come back into vogue.
 
I know back in its day it was heavy and all, but I still think that ormsby's streamliner was the best looking car out there and still my favorite. Who knows maybe with carbon fiber it could happen again and could look awesome. Maybe we need to go back to the days of innovation and these cars just may become safe again. There are still a lot of very smart men and women out there.:)
 
I thought Ormsby's back half was carbon fiber and that is what was shorting out the mags. I also remember that they figured that out pretty quickly.
 
I know that weight has always ended up being the death of the streamliners, but it seems hard to believe that since we're talking about just the area from the driver back (getting the engine & tires covered), that it would add that much weight. Again, I don't know what the numbers are, but maybe today it would be worth revisiting. Also, with the power that these cars make, and the fact that they can smoke the tires effortlessly, one would think that a little extra weight would not hinder a fuel car. But since I'm not a tuner on a fuel car, I have more questions than answers!
 
Another car 10 years ahead of its time.
JimHEad.jpg


I like this idea. I did back then, and I still do now. This has a slightly elevated wing, but you could very well stick a funny car type spoiler on the back. Funny Cars have gone 4.63 and 334 MPH so there is no reason we would not see 4.50s with the dragsters like we see most of the time now. Also, I like the fact that since this does not put the wing 6 feet in the air, way back behind the centerline of the rear axle, the cars would have less tendancy to arch up so much in the middle.

I know it would never happen, but it is pretty cool.
 
Hey Paul, when was that picture of Heads car taken? How many times do you know of them testing that?
 
I want to say 1993 or so, and I don't think he ran it all that much, and only in testing.
 
Registered member said:
Did Ormsby ditch his after wrecking motors again and again.

I thought they found the cause to be the mags arching out on the engine cover.

Might be wrong, innovative cars are sorely missed, even our English racers had a go.
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That only happened on the car's first outing, the Winternationals. They figured it out immediately. Ormsby ran that body for more than half of the season, and it never really performed so well. It made the finals at the '86 Cajun Nationals (as stated in previous post). I have pictures from that race of the car. I remember reading that it weighed in about 100 lbs. too much with the body and all of the required bracing.

Let's not forget about this one, from the early '80's, Darbin's "Favorite Thing"
favoritething.jpg
 
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Maybe it's time to add some weight to these cars. I'm not just talking a token 10-15 pounds. I'm talking a couple hundred. Plus, lower the fuel pump capacity, I think you'll see some significant speed and et reductions.

In return, perhaps lower funded teams wouldn't have to spend so much money on parts made out of exotic materials, and perhaps the extra load on the engine will help in keeping all the candles lit.

edit: And I still believe traction control wouldn't be such a terrible thing.
 
Registered member said:
edit: And I still believe traction control wouldn't be such a terrible thing.
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I don't think traction control would help much. The cars just make too much power. What would you do to make the car stop slipping the tires in an instant?? I think once the car notices the tires are starting to slip, it's too late for anything to suddenly hook the tires back up, and the car is going to smoke the tires anyways. Especially in the early parts of the run. I don't think a sudden drop in fuel volume or drop in timing is a good idea. The engines have a hard enough time living the way it is, without all this other stuff going on.

Example on what happens now---On a hot slippery track, the tires lets say will start spinning coming off the pad. When the rev limiter kicks on further down, the tires do not suddenly hook back up and the car takes off. It may keep the spinning from getting worse, but it definatly does not cure it on the spot.
 
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