Ken
My 239" hard tail dragster with and aluminum headed big block, glide,an aluminum sirocco (3" thick) radiator , an alternator, one optmia battery and a mark williams rear end housing with a 250# driver weighs 1840# after a pass. I haven't seen any performance difference in upswept or down swept headers the up swept headers can get rocks in them ocassionally as the tires pick up gravel and throw it at the header. but the down swept has a potential to put oil in front of the rear tire if you break a motor. The down swept also have a potential to fit some door car (strut suspension) applications which helps their re-sale potential.
A typical dragster (>240") will fit in a 24' trailer but you will need to lose the front center cabinet as the nose of the car will end up very close to the front wall of the trailer, in the past when I had to borrow a 24' trailer I built a ramp and removed the door of the center cabinet to allow my car to fit. the biggest problem with dragsters/trailers is ground clearance especially if the trailer has a "dove tail" this can require longer ramps on the door, jacking up the trailer to load the car and or a dragster dolly wich raises the front of the car for loading. Since my trailer has a "dove tail" I use a dolly and a winch which makes it possible for me to load and unload the car by myself. (My next trailer
will not have a dove tail!) I have seen dozens of different approaches to this particular problem.
They are easier to "slip in to", but they may be a littler tougher to exit from.
They are easier to work on (get ya a couple of milk crates)
You can definately see better and judge the finish line better
However they are a pain in the *** to back up in or try to turn around.
You definately need a chassis stabilizer to prevent damaging or breaking the chassis while towing down the highway.
If you have any more questions you can e-mail me at
Greatbaer@sbcglobal.net