Quote:
Originally Posted by Harry 6674
Paul you mentioned a while back that you car was a little slow to be competitive in nhra class racing. Maybe if you stayed closer to home and put that travel money in you car you could pick it up some. We know those Buicks can be good combos and in div. 6 you are not having to dodge a bunch of the DP's. Good luck which ever way you go.
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Your thought train is correct in theory. Here are the issues with NHRA and the reason why I chose to set-up a crate motor stocker for IHRA:
1) NHRA meaningfully stopped enforcing rules a couple of decades ago which changed the face of stock eliminator racing and the associated costs. Additionally all of the cheating has resulted in the downward migration of all of the indexes and two years ago a further reduction of .3 in the indexes.
2) I would need to pick-up about 74 HP to be exact to have a chance to run with the fastest Buick Stocker in the country and still would be marginally competitive with other C cars in the country, I believe the current record is 10.25 in C/SA. The only way to do this is is to pay approximately $8K for a set of ported and covered heads and intake manifold. My car is alredy set-up with the lightweight trans, chassis & suspension mods, etc.
3) Per HRD, my cylinder head shop, "their is no-way to pick-up 74hp with a set of bone stock Buick cylinder heads and intake without a bunch of porting, covering and severely cutting intake and exhaust flanges to get the runner volumes back to spec.
4) I can afford to do this, however, HRD's & my personal moral and ethics will not allow me to knowingly violate the written rules no matter what the cost. I am not a herd follower so I do not care what everyone else is doing, not on aboard with "Its only illegal if they catch you" mentality or the one I like best " I just bought this engine from an engine builder, I don't know what is in it?
5) At the last division race at Spokane, there were 5 C/SA cars out of 21 racers and I had to shut the car off at 1000' every qualifying run to position myself at the bottom of the ladder in hopes of avoiding a heads-up race first round. In years past this was no problem as I was running .5-.6 under the index which was enough to play keep away.
6) Two years ago NHRA penalized those of us who run completely legal programs by dumping the indexes by .3 of a second. With my combination I am now a .2-.3 under car with very limited ability to play keep away.
7) To compare and contrast with IHRA, I used my same NHRA stock eliminator bottom end, added a set of unported cratemotor spec Buick replacement heads, intake manifold and Holley 850 carb per IHRA rules all at a cost of around $4K, checkout
www.classracertech.com for hard costs and performance data associated with the conversion. The good news is that everything was manufactured in this century and I did not have to do any porting and covering BS and did not have to take out a second mortgage on my house to afford the go fast parts. .
8) Based on late season testing, my car will easily run 1 second under the index in F/CM or G/CM.
9) IHRA just added a divsion six for us here in the Northwest and Canada with at least 5 tracks within one days drive including 5 pro-am events and two national events.
10)You can drive right up to the gate at these events pay your money - no grade point BS and at the IHRA National events I have never been more than a half a block from the staging lanes. They treat us stock and super stock guys like royalty event though we are not the fan draw.
11) For me it is a no-brainer to run IHRA, No more shutting off at 1000', much cheaper to run, don't have to cheat to compete, get to use modern parts, get treated like a rock-star at every event.
12) I will continue to support our local track effort. Cindy and Charlie are good folks who are rebuilding our local racing programs here in Spokane and we all need to make it to the track a few times each year to help them in their efforts.
Have a great day!