The Garlits Solution (1 Viewer)

[hotrod]

Am I the only guy left on earth that seems to remember the U.S. government asking Garlits for his help in determining what type of fuel would be needed to make a certain piece of found equipment fly again.
As for the current problem at hand, Garlits has the answers. It's just NHRA may not be asking. Or, maybe they are.
I have a deep respect for the guy.

 

[zero]

And for those keeping score ..... Shirley is not behind the switch to 1000 ft.

Shirley ain't driving!

 

[Wes]

I've been reading and listening for the last few days about the 1000' change. Personally I was hoping for 660' until a massive reduction in power/speed could be found, but if the team owners, drivers, and NHRA are, for once, all on the same bus I'm cool with 1000'.

There was a time in the 1980's when 1000' racing was on our doorstep. NHRA was getting very nervous once the cars began to exceed 260 that they began a campaign to shorten ALL drag racing classes to 1000'. I was living in New Jersey at the time and the track in Englishtown was one of the main tracks in the crosshairs along with Pomona, Indy, and Baton Rouge (if some of you were following the sport back then, State Capitol Dragway did have an NHRA national event). The proposal met with fierce opposition from racers, fans, tracks, and even the media. In the end, NHRA left well enough alone until Wednesday, July 2, 2008. More than 20 years and 70 mph later and we finally get the first in what MUST be a multitude of steps to reform drag racing into an exciting, competitive, cost-effective, and-most importantly-safe form of motorsports entertainment.

Jeff Burk's latest editorial makes a great point about drag racing's varied history of track length. He's 100% right. The absolute worst thing an individual, a business, a country, or a people can believe is that a wrong is right just because that's the way we've always done it. I would extend that belief to the constant droaning I hear/read about the way a nitro car SOUNDS! Once we get past that, the options for safety, side-by-side action, reductions in costs and consumption of resources, and long-term viability are limitless.

The solutions for achieving all of the criteria I mentioned above are simply staring everyone right in the collective face. NHRA already has two possible engine formulas in existence: Injected Nitro and/or the nostalgia/heritage TF or FC rules. In the interest of controlled obsolescence I would vote for the A/FD combination since the vast majority of the parts are interchangable.

So, with that said, perhaps the locked-room meeting would include Big, Conway, Reichert, Boggs, Monden, Gunderson, Stark, Johnson (for his vast expertise from a supplier's POV), Gibson (the Aero guy), and a host of other key contributors. I believe that it would not take long for them to design the TF and FC of the future. Build a set of guidelines to build a 1320' Top Fuel car that could hit the high 4.80-range at 290 and a Funny Car (that looks like a car, by the way) and averages 5.00 at 280. Or, better yet, a class that combines both types of cars...could you imagine 64-car nitro fields???

However, I don't care what solution is agreed upon if there aren't adequate restrictions and processes in place to keep the performance levels at a safe and reasonable clip. We can't have a rouge team or tuner out there taking radical steps to suddenly go 2-tenths quicker than anyone else just because he/she can do so. Therefore, the new ideas must be able to curb that urge or capability.

 

[SAS]

Shirley ain't driving!

Very true. But just because she is putting her butt on the line , it does not mean she has forgotten the ride. Every that is watching knows it is less safe than a dozen years ago. And we all have opinions, I would rather the NHRA figure a way to safely slow them down to 300 or so. Adding weight only made it harder to stop. AND GO BACK TO THE 1/4 MILE.

 

[possum]

The stuff about Force on the previous page.... c'mon, it is drag RACING... not a parade or exhibition. First to the finish wins. The Funny Car index isn't 4.90 it is "zero", Force doesn't break out by going faster than the next guy. He's obviously done a better job of winning races than everybody else for the last decade and a half.

NHRA has already found several ways of slowing the cars down, weight, gear ratio, nitro percentage, etc ... and the smart ones keep finding ways to go faster. That is their job, they aren't being inconsiderate.

Drivers were being killed when they went barely 200 and cars were running off the ends of tracks back then too. but check some of the track records at these same tracks. Many places have seen 350 to 400mph runs by rocket cars.

 

[megadeth]

Let's lock Garlits, Head, Manzo, Force, Fedderly, Coil, Alan Johnson, T. Ped, and Don Prudhomme all in a room with a dry erase board and a bunch of drawing paper.

Tell me a group like that wouldn't know what to do.

Eliminate Manzo, Force ,T. Ped and Don Prudhomme they ain't mechanically minded or engineers!
Head and Alan Johnson is all you would really need but the others Fedderly, Coil and add Medlen wouldn't hurt.

 

[Dave]

Many places have seen 350 to 400mph runs by rocket cars.

That is an excellent point. Many people forget about the rocket cars. I seem to recall the reason they did away with rocket cars is that sometims they just wouldn't shut off an several drivers were hurt or killed.

I still haven't made up my mind about this 1000' thing. I guess I'l have to see it before I decide.

Dave

 

[Rexfiles]

Eliminate Manzo, Force ,T. Ped and Don Prudhomme they ain't mechanically minded or engineers!
Head and Alan Johnson is all you would really need but the others Fedderly, Coil and add Medlen wouldn't hurt.

I dunno where you are gettin' this on Manzo.........but you are wayyyyyyyyyyy off on that. Take it to the bank.

TPed knows the inner workings of these things, he was a crew member, and Prudhomme ain't no dummy either.

He's done some tuning in his day.

Admittedly Force is the least mechanical minded of all, but he sure could be of valuable input from the "show" perspective.

He's been through the mill, and even if he were not driving, Ashley is.

I think he has a great stake in this sport all around, and NOW........ realizes that it needs to adapt to change.

Maybe 1320 will need to come back for the sport to survive.

Or maybe not, like Armstrong says, and I am not ignorant enough to argue with THAT guy,if he says they'll blow up at 800', OK.

I'm wrong. Takes a little effort to wrap your mind around a idea you cannot understand, but I'm not a fuel crew chief.

So maybe 1000', lower compression, less overdrive, and a boxier, more conventional, realistic shell, but as a concession, back to 95-98% Nitro.

The cars would slow down considerably, take longer to get from whatever A-B is, and still put on a tremendous show.

And we could get RID of that damned rev limiter.

I know enough about them that I would applaud the decision to remove them. bad juju, IMO

If we can go back to 1320', stop these horrendous explosions, keep them down to 300, high fours, lots of smoke and noise, less parts breakage and oildowns, I'll be happy too.

Fer cripes sakes. Going to a National event today, it's like watching the History channel, there is around the same success rate of getting a fuel car to make a clean pass, than there was to launch a rocket into orbit back in the late 50's

Boring, and terrifying.

REX

 

[Whipster]

Correct me if I'm wrong but, didn't Garlitz along with Joe Amato have to retire because of detached retinas because of negative G's from the chutes? I say give Garlitz a chance to speak.

 

[megadeth]

I dunno where you are gettin' this on Manzo.........but you are wayyyyyyyyyyy off on that. Take it to the bank.

TPed knows the inner workings of these things, he was a crew member, and Prudhomme ain't no dummy either.

He's done some tuning in his day.

Admittedly Force is the least mechanical minded of all, but he sure could be of valuable input from the "show" perspective.

He's been through the mill, and even if he were not driving, Ashley is.

I think he has a great stake in this sport all around, and NOW........ realizes that it needs to adapt to change.

Maybe 1320 will need to come back for the sport to survive.

Or maybe not, like Armstrong says, and I am not ignorant enough to argue with THAT guy,if he says they'll blow up at 800', OK.

I'm wrong. Takes a little effort to wrap your mind around a idea you cannot understand, but I'm not a fuel crew chief.

So maybe 1000', lower compression, less overdrive, and a boxier, more conventional, realistic shell, but as a concession, back to 95-98% Nitro.

The cars would slow down considerably, take longer to get from whatever A-B is, and still put on a tremendous show.

And we could get RID of that damned rev limiter.

I know enough about them that I would applaud the decision to remove them. bad juju, IMO

If we can go back to 1320', stop these horrendous explosions, keep them down to 300, high fours, lots of smoke and noise, less parts breakage and oildowns, I'll be happy too.

Fer cripes sakes. Going to a National event today, it's like watching the History channel, there is around the same success rate of getting a fuel car to make a clean pass, than there was to launch a rocket into orbit back in the late 50's

Boring, and terrifying.

REX

O.K. Manzo can come!

 

[sammi]

I can live with Dale Armstrong's solution.

Mark

 

[megadeth]

I can live with Dale Armstrong's solution.

Mark

So could I!