Lookin for NHRA Stock Class ET/MPH from 1970-71

[Ed Wright]

Originally Posted by Kenney Kelley

Ed In 1968 I was at a Points meet at Warner Robbins Ga. back then you could set the ET or MPH record. The car we had was a 9Pass 57 Wagon 265 2 Barrel Q/S. We were real close to the MPH. We were parked next to a racer that told me next time I go to the line stage the car put it in reverse let the clutch out very slowly the car will move back a couple of feet then put the car in first and go. That 1 or 2 feet put us within 2 tenths of a MPH record. That might have been how some were able to run the MPH. I was only 18 at the time. They have changed the rules now the car has to move forward. This was about the time the How to build a winning junior stocker article was in the Super Stock and Drag illustrated that's how we were able to build the car. I spent a lot of time under the car scraping undercoating. That's when I found out chevy had 2 different frames for a 55/57. Kenney

I never heard of doing that to set the MPH record. I always heard how fast Atco was, just assumed it was the air. Back when the car I race was my street car (faster than it is now, but not legal for a class.) I was in invited to an EFI Shootout GM High Tech magazine was putting on at Englishtown, NJ. A couple of friends wanted to go, SS we put it in one of those guy's trailer and went. Fastest track I ever been to. Heck, I always thought Pomona was fast. Local guys were saying (should have done this at Atco, where it's fast. Really? I told the guys that came with me "Now I know how the Ronca Bros were so fast!" LOL I had no wheelie bars, and just some cheap QA1 shocks. It was fun to drive, scraping the bumper & shifting in the air. Didn't have the nerve to go to Atco like that. LOL

[Mark Yacavone]

Originally Posted by Kenney Kelley

Ed In 1968 I was at a Points meet at Warner Robbins Ga. back then you could set the ET or MPH record. The car we had was a 9Pass 57 Wagon 265 2 Barrel Q/S. We were real close to the MPH. We were parked next to a racer that told me next time I go to the line stage the car put it in reverse let the clutch out very slowly the car will move back a couple of feet then put the car in first and go. That 1 or 2 feet put us within 2 tenths of a MPH record. That might have been how some were able to run the MPH. I was only 18 at the time. They have changed the rules now the car has to move forward. This was about the time the How to build a winning junior stocker article was in the Super Stock and Drag illustrated that's how we were able to build the car. I spent a lot of time under the car scraping undercoating. That's when I found out chevy had 2 different frames for a 55/57. Kenney

We would stage crooked and cover a lot of ground....

[Steve Stasko]

If anyone noticed...there's no winner or runner-up listed for C/SA at Indy in 1970 from the ND results. Ken Lau told me that he won his round in the semis for C/SA in 1970, but the torque converter was going bad in the car, so he loaded up and did not run the finals. He was afraid of hurting the car. I cannot recall who he was supposed to run, but Kenny told me they got tossed or broke. He always said he wished he would have went up and at least staged the car.


Al Adam (Chrysler Engineering) drove the car for Kenny at Indy in 1971 in C/SA. He red-lit against Ted Flack in the C/SA finals.


Kenny raced the car as a 426/425 Max Wedge in C/SA. It was a '64 440 sedan. I have a couple clippings with ET/MPH. The attached is from 1970, and I have one from Numidia in 1971 where he ran 11.74 against George Supinski in the semi's.

[DeuceCoupe]

Originally Posted by g moore

i have a copy of the record page from nat dragster from 1968--1972 if you want a pic. let me know-gary

Gary,
Yes that would help thanks!
It takes quite a bit of et/mph data to figure out what was going on back then, because some of the runs were "brake light" runs so you cant trust the MPH at all and even the ET was sandbagging. More data helps. I wish I had all those old sheets but I was barely a teenager then.

[Ed Wright]

I should have added above, I went to Indy with Carroll Caudle to help him one year when I didn't have the money to take mine. He picked me up on his way through Tulsa. The Ronca brothers had their '56 there, that thing was a rocket. Mine would never run with that car. I got to thinking I made it sound like I thought the race tracks there were fast (they are), and their car was not. Those guys were bad fast. Sorry if I came across like they weren't. I should give more thought to what I post. Sorry.

[Rich Biebel]

Atco is fast as are most of the northeast tracks in cool weather....

Fastest we ever ran MPH wise in 1970 with our H/S Chevy II was 114++ MPH at York at the spring WCS race......12.20's but did not get the record that day....and we were trying......Just ran out of time and were not given a backup.....

Points were awarded for either ET or MPH and some people tried setting just the MPH end successfully.

One technique was to try and cover as much ground as possible by driving from one side to the other and back staying within the lane....

No a very good idea in a fast car on 7" tires though since they were squirrely at the top end sometimes.......low air, narrow rims....

Even a 12 second car at 110+ could get pretty loose feeling on those tires and rims at the finishline........I did not like it when I drove our car.....

[Ed Wright]

I used 4" wide wheels on my 7" Firestones. Don't remember how much air. Not much. Had to get used to the feel down near the finish line. Back then, many guys didn't travel as much as now. And, we didn't have the weather stations. I finally did get an Air Density gauge. I was lucky I raced in a slow area. I set the record where I could run the allowed tenth under anywhere around here, except Amarillo (3900'), so if I went out of division I was still in good shape.
The NHRA World Finals were in Dallas a while, then here in Tulsa for a while. We had to qualify, off the record, so we saw a lot of Div 1 & Div 7 cars, with National Record Holder painted on the fenders fail to make the show, could not even run their own records. Many set at Atco, NJ and Fremont, CA. First time I heard the term "mineshaft" used to duscribe a race track was Sonny Bryant telling me about Fremont.

[Dwight Southerland]

eg 1967:
Was the "325hp" Firebird RA1 up-rated to the "360hp" Tempest RA1 rating? (which I assume was left as-is at 360)? Were both the stick and auto cam engines left with the same rating? Yes.

1968:
So, was the "335hp" Firebird RA1 up-rated to the "360hp" Tempest RA1 rating (which I assume was left as-is at 360)? Were both the stick and auto cam engines left with the same rating? Yes and yes.

1968-70
Was the base "330hp" Firebird up-rated to the base "350hp" Tempest rating? No. 1968 Firebird was left at 330. 1969 and 1970 Firebirds were 350.

1969:
Was the "335hp" Firebird RA3 up-rated to the "366hp" Tempest RA3 rating? Yes.

1970:
Was the "345hp" Firebird RA3 up-rated to the "366hp" Tempest RA3 rating? 345hp Firebird and the 366hp Tempest were both at 366. The 370hp RA IV engines in 1969 and 1970 were at 380.

[DeuceCoupe]

Originally Posted by Dwight Southerland

eg 1967:
Was the "325hp" Firebird RA1 up-rated to the "360hp" Tempest RA1 rating? (which I assume was left as-is at 360)? Were both the stick and auto cam engines left with the same rating? Yes.

1968:
So, was the "335hp" Firebird RA1 up-rated to the "360hp" Tempest RA1 rating (which I assume was left as-is at 360)? Were both the stick and auto cam engines left with the same rating? Yes and yes.

1968-70
Was the base "330hp" Firebird up-rated to the base "350hp" Tempest rating? No. 1968 Firebird was left at 330. 1969 and 1970 Firebirds were 350.

1969:
Was the "335hp" Firebird RA3 up-rated to the "366hp" Tempest RA3 rating? Yes.

1970:
Was the "345hp" Firebird RA3 up-rated to the "366hp" Tempest RA3 rating? 345hp Firebird and the 366hp Tempest were both at 366. The 370hp RA IV engines in 1969 and 1970 were at 380.

Thanks Dwight that is a great help in lining things up. At least with Pontiac you don't have to worry so much about a Ram Air factor, its either a Ram Air car or its not.


I'm not sure how (or if) NHRA handled cold air in general back then - we covered where NHRA factored the flat-hood 428CJ at 340hp, but factored the cold-air 428CJ at 360hp.


But I cant find any other examples were NHRA factored a cold-air car different than a flat-hood or "warm-air" car, does that sound right?




Well now I am thinking about those doggone Street Hemi's again.
Were they ALL factored to 480hp or just the ones with cold air, which would be all the 69-70 Hemis, some of the 71 Hemis, and a few of the 67 Hemis, the RO23 glass hood cars?


Could the rest of the warm-air Hemis been factored at say 465hp or were they all 480hp?