Printable View
The big chase downs are fun, depending on whether you are the chaser or the chasee!!!! Friday night Gambler's race at Fargo, ND. Final round I dialed in a 9.88, car I ran dialed in a 17.50!!!!! I didn't think that tree was ever gonna start coming down!!!!!!:LOL: :LOL: :LOL:
I hate to say this but even organized nostalgia is getting to be nothing but extended super gas classes (which I like, just not at a nostalgia event), I guess its just the natural progression of things , but I miss the actual STEEL door slamming drag cars, of course the true old ones can't run - no up to date saftey equip and even if they did have it they would fail due to fatique testing ,Its sad, but you can't bring back the old gas days or old gas class cars, not anymore :( :CRY: Best you get to do is a SLOOOOW exhibition run , a static display and a short fire up. Been there too. :whacked:
I like watchin' the miss-matched bracket cars. The crowd likes 'em too, judging by the cheers when it's close at the traps. The only down side I see is the chance the fast car could get out of shape, cross the line and take out the slow car
were thinking of a final mismatch cash race for our track top street,race and bike run for a cash prize . the one that was closest to their winning et in their class gets the buy and then they run down from there.put up 200 bucks and they can go for it if they want.
something different for the fans and the racers to keep it fun.
i like racing the big street bikes,they have such an amazing top end run down.
Agree, drag racing should not restrict racers to 500 cu inches, 85% nitro, etc. etc. 'just to keep it even' All cookie cutter cars, with billboard sides. Sorry, but these guys are not real drag racers. Go to your local strip on a Sat or Sunday and you will see the true drag racers,,,,, no sponsors! You blow something up, you shell out and fix it. Seems like the NHRA doesn't want to hurt anyones feelings!
Bracket racing sux! When a Yugo can win top honors by turning consistent 17's against a fueled alted, something is wrong!
No limits! You win or lose based on your 'enginuity' and skill [money too!]
Manual trans are not as fast as an auto, but then who cares! Be different!
But that's just my opinion,,,,
Kolie
John Force and the boys are about as real as drag racing can be!!!! Not all of them, especially Force, started out with multi-million dollar operations.... Bracket racing is fine, just remember you are racing yourself, the car in the other lane should be the least of your concerns. No limits???? Wouldn't work. You'd be picking up cars and drivers in a big fiery pile.... The nitro limits and cubic inch limits are there for safety concerns... Racing with no limits would leave 99% of us sitting at home on the weekend becuase we wouldn't be competitive. Manual transmissions are inherently faster then automatics based on less drag and less rotating mass. The illusion is that manual transmissions are not as consistent as automatics, but as I've said before then why do the Pro Stockers seem to be able to repeat times to within a few hundreths round after round?????
Racing with the money out of your back pocket makes you no more or less of a drag racer then a heavily sponsored pro car. All it means is that you compete at a different level....
Dave you need to check out the modern day PS tranny/clutch. They have more in common with the typical automatic than one of your M20's.
Haven't run an M20 in 25 years.... Much prefer Liberty's, Lenco's, the old Doug Nash Comp trannies and the like.... No idea what a PS tranny clutch is..... Many years ago there were Clutchflites, something along that line or?????Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike in Motown
Pro Stocks usually run Lenco, Liberty or G-Force five-speed clutchless manual transmissions. Multi-disc clutch to get off the line and trannys that can be shifted on the fly w/o the clutch. Sorta' like what Dave mentioned.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike in Motown
did you win:whacked: :toocool:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Severson
It's a VERY long wait at the light when you have to give a 2 tree head start to the other lane. :eek: :eek: :eek: That same head start seems way to short when your the hunted. :LOL: :LOL: I've been in both situations. Sure is fun though in either case. :3dSMILE: :3dSMILE:
A few more favorites from the archive.....
Yup, ran my dial in with and .004 light, kicked his slow motion butt!!!!!!:LOL: :LOL: :LOL:Quote:
Originally Posted by gassersrule_196
Quote:
Originally Posted by pro70z28
Ya i was obviously overstating the comparison to auto's. Point is they're not quite the bang boxes that are run on the street. What Dave says is true 'sort of'. Theres a few guys at sac that run amazingly consistent with manual transmissions and I honestly dont think I could ever get to their level of repeatability with so many added variables compared to an auto.
Big thing to get consistency in a manual trans is to do the same thing every lap. The same length burnout, out of the water the same every time, etc. Consistency on shift rpm is actually easier with a stick, no converter slippage to worry about, or shifting early to get engagement at the rpm you want. With a five speed, I can also keep the engine in peak torque a lot longer during the run. I always chassis dyno my cars before going to the track so I know exactly what range to keep the revs in. If I want to have more or less time in a particular gear, it's also quite easy to change gear ratios in the transmission. With all the good clutches and boxes, consistency with a stick is no longer the problem it was. I guess it depends on what you get used to and how much practice you want to put in.... Oh yeah, I also run with a pair of headsets and a "beeper box" off the tach that beeps at a preset RPM shift point so watching the tach is no longer an issue. That, along with a two step rev limiter will make any car regardless of trans type more consistent....
This talk brings back memory of an guy at a test day at Famoso back around 1998. It was at the end of the day and this really old guy is making lap after lap without cooling down in a mach 1 stang. Car looked like it wasnt set up too well and launched really violently. It seemed as if he was sidestepping the clutch at full throttle. Front wheels up with a pronounced frame twist and hard landings that seemed to unload the rear tires. The front wheels were bump steered into flapping like wings, all this with a noticeable weave of two to three feet left to right all the way down the track. Im sure everyone has witnessed this scene before but what made it odd was the scoreboard. 11.02, 11.03, 11.02, 11.04, 11.05 all with .010-.020 lights!!!!
Now that right there wins most small time non E bracket races around here.
There ya go Mike....and as they say, "Old age and treachery will overcome youth and exhuberance".........:LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL:
nothing ruins drag racing. you can have a bad moment but not a bad time.
Im ruining drag racing!
My NHRA fantasy pics last race dropped me from the top ten percent down to the top THIRTY percent.:mad: Im now in a whopping four thousand and something or other place.
grrrr.......
Well, better pics this week have me back in the top ten percent, yey.
No offense to the drag racers on here, but it really is getting to close to having the computers actually race the car. All they need is a color sensitive trigger to release the trans brake and just enough control to keep it moving in a straight line, and you could have computer driven drag cars winning bracket races easily.
Will that be before or after our cars drive themselves down the highway????:LOL: :LOL: :LOL: There are "non electronic" brackets, too.....Quote:
Originally Posted by Tommycat
my friend and i raced a 65 stang in G GAS here in the old div 7 in 1975. becouse we had a ford boss 302 in the car we had a weight factor added becouse of the canted valves. so lets see a chev had the nat record and most of the cars were running a chevy engine. yeat the ford had the weigh more. we held our own ran 10.67 on a 10.61 index. until the last race in utah [which we did not go to] we were 7 th in the points in div 7. for a back yard car [most of the cars then] we did pretty good ,we were runner up [first looser] at the div 7 points meet at fremont that year. i think dave preston in a VW beat us in the final. he turned a 10.80 on a 11.20 index. i just did not understand the weight thing on a ford that did not dominate the class. lost interest in NHRA. NHRA made it big time so i guess they had the right idea.
nothing beats a bad a** 4 speed machine. theres this little 30's ford truck that races out here, the cab was channeled on over the custom back halved and clipped frame by all means this is a backyard buld but done very safely disc brakes good welds grade 8 etc, anyways it weights 1850ish and has a t-10 4 speed guy uses a centerforce pressure plate with a stock disc, dumpt he clutch at 7200 pops 2-3 foot wheelies and runs 10.40 10.42 10.48 10.50 pretty consistent considering the air at the track changes very drastically. at 2500 feet it goes from 90 to 60 very fast! and it hops everytime he shifts ive considered getting decals for it naming it THE FROG!
Anybody watch the Bristol coverage yesterday?
Pedal wars, red lights, some familiar names back toward the top, tricky track (for some), wins by a mere few thousandths. 'PRO' racing looked pretty healthy to me.
I love it when the track is unpredictable, because it opens the door for the cars that usually have a slight disadvantage. Great racing! :-)
They are doing the same thing in P/S Bike right now!Quote:
Originally Posted by greanmeany1
I thought Tim Richard's comment at the end of the Top Fuel final was interesting, a 134* track acting like a 100* track. Jim Dunn's explanation also made a lot of sense. Instead of over powering the track they were under powering.
The thing that I could not understand is why Vandergrif chose the right lane in the final, they had made 3 good runs A--->B in the left lane and Bernstein had gone up in smoke twice in the right lane. I think I would have stayed in the left lane where I knew what worked and put Brandon over in the lane where they had been having trouble all day!
I was really pulling for Captain Chaos in Pro Stock, he was running and driving so good. Nice to see the underdogs get a shot
Pat
Jim Heads resurgence is kinda neat. In the past he always seemed to 'innovate' himself right out of contention. Looks like he might make the chase or countdown or whatever it is now.
Did you guys see the Bud King shake BB's head around like a ball in a mariachi rattle during his first pedal fest? That had to hurt.:whacked:
And Jason Line, oh what a difference a year makes huh?
It's good to see somebody(s) challenging Anderson and Line, Pro Stock was getting boring.
The Jeg's car, and team mate Connoly, seem to be challenging for the throne now!
It's amazed me that 2 cars can be so dominant in a class that is separated by hundredths of a second. It seems that if Anderson was running 6.80's and someone got close he'd run a 6.78. I know he's good, but that always seemed a little fishy to me. I think they ought to go back to banging shifts.
Yup, been there done that!!!!!:LOL: :LOL: :LOL: I'll guarantee you he still has a nasty headache and some very sore neck muscles today... When it happens to ya, just keep pointing at the track in the middle!!!!!:LOL: :LOL: :LOL:Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike in Motown
Gotta go get some aspirin, got a headache just thinking about it!!!!
Oh wait, I think they put dried beans in mariachi rattles. my bad.
Sadly Dave I havent had the pleasure of having anything with enough HP to rattle my dome like that. But lifes not over yet.
Check out the pics:3dSMILE: on the net,They are running an event at Kingdon Dragway in Lodi (was closed back in the 70's) check out the pics from last year! A large crowd was on hand too!Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike in Motown
Force didn't start out with mega bucks, he worked his way into sponsorship.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 48fordnut
I remember the Force truck driver struggling days. He went to a bunch of finals before finally winning. If memory serves his only sponsor was a local coca-cola bottling company and his first FC national event win was in canada.
Force raced his "Brute Force" cars here in Tucson in the '70s and '80s. I liked the logo he had on the side! :-)
I have been looking for the picture of that blonde for months...Can someone tell me who she is and what racer she was associated with?:DQuote:
Originally Posted by deuce3wcpe
As for ruining the sport...No Way!:p
Things will always change, some for the better and some not, but there is still no greater spectator sport than drag racing. For a few buck you can spend the better part of a day watching demon fast cars, see some pretty girls and drink a few beers. No other sport I know lets you get so close to the action or interact with the drivers like drag racing.:cool:
I loved it back in the 60’s and I still love it today and one day when then my dependents are grown and out the door, I hope to be on the track myself. (three children = no time or money for racing!;) )