Dusty corners of the NHRA Classification Guide

[427FE]

Originally Posted by Steve Stasko

There's one in Central PA. Car is still raced, saw it at Beaver Springs a couple months ago. It's been a while since they ran it in Stock though...5-10 years? 390, stick car, ran in L/S.

Interesting...who owns it?

[Mike Schwartz]

Originally Posted by Mark Yacavone

Nice little cars but I don't think it'll run under the T/Stock index ( No S class in Stock)

You're right, it should be T not S. Funny, I remembered that, and it still got through.

[Billy Nees]

Originally Posted by 427FE

Interesting...who owns it?

A fella named Craig Jerrnigan.

[Mike Schwartz]

Here is a car that is almost the size of one of Columbus' ships, the 1968 Plymouth Fury III Fast Top, with the 440/350(355) BB wedge.



I have a soft spot for these barges as I used to own one. It was my 2nd quickest car, running high 14's stock.

In Stock, it fits into D thru F/S, D thru F/SA. In Super Stock, it fits into SS/H thru J, SS/HA thru JA.

[DeuceCoupe]

Originally Posted by 427FE

When was the last time you saw a galaxie in s/ss?

Seems there would indeed be more of them.
Back in the day, the 427 HiRiser Gal won its share, until it got factored to 500hp and had to run against the Street Hemi cars from 1966-up, and then against some Race Hemi cars right at the top of the 7.00 weight break.


The 427 LowRiser won its share (mostly automatic classes even though you couldn't buy that combo!). Seems that combo would still run good under today's "Design your own heads" rules since the port VOLUME is pretty big but not the optimum shape. So you could legally make a much better head.


I try to hunt for combos that were UNDERRATED by the factory, and then respond well to legal mods. Most of the obvious combos were of course discovered back in the 1960s. If they were too obvious, they got factored by NHRA, and were still usually underrated but not near as much as before. Ford tried to push the 64 HiRiser Galaxie on NHRA at the same "425hp" rating carried by the LoRiser Gal so they could run the car in A/S=8.70 class. NHRA didn't fall for that at all.


One combo long overlooked was the 352/250hp Galaxie.


When picking out such "dusty corner" combos, I look for stuff that was underrated from the factory. A lot of low-perf vanilla engines were overrated, so even if they didn't get factored, you' re at a disadvantage right off. The big 430 inchers eg didn't make near their rated power, and didn't respond too well to legal mods, so not good combos.


The 352/300hp-4v Ford of 1958-60 was the same way - way overrated, bad place to start. But in 1964, the same combo (nearly identical) came back out and was rated much lower, at 352/250hp. Now it was UNDERRATED. Great place to start. And with a tiny cam, flat log exhausts, and boat anchor intake, you could add a batch of power in a hurry and still be stock or superstock legal. And yet, nobody seems to have run this combo back in the day. I think the trouble is, it was down there with all the Tri-5 Chevy combos which also had a batch of power added to them.

[Terry Cain]

Originally Posted by 427FE

When was the last time you saw a galaxie in s/ss?

Saw one running NSS 3 weeks ago at INDY at the NMCA meet. I'm telling you guys. There is some neat old car in that series racing. How about a 59 El camino with a 348? Yep, there was one there. OR I think 65 Studabaker with a 283 running in a pure stock class.

[427FE]

Originally Posted by Terry Cain

Saw one running NSS 3 weeks ago at INDY at the NMCA meet. I'm telling you guys. There is some neat old car in that series racing. How about a 59 El camino with a 348? Yep, there was one there. OR I think 65 Studabaker with a 283 running in a pure stock class.

The spirit of nss has faded with strokers, engines not available in that specific chassis, etc.

[Dave Gantz]

Originally Posted by DeuceCoupe

One combo long overlooked was the 352/250hp Galaxie.

Is this the combo that Kip Martin ran in SS? I never met him, but became a fan from seeing him in Dragster and doing well with the car. (In the 80's?)

[427FE]

There was another fella with a 64 galaxie running n/ss back in the 80s with a 352. Jerry Pruit. Cars is coming back out of hibernation for some ss action.

[427FE]

Running r/ss