Wow I Can Use A 3Spd
 

I'm so glad the brains at NHRA are going to allow me to put a 3spd behind my 327. I can't wait to go to ATI,TCI,COAN or ROSSLER and order my new unit. Also don't forget I need a new shifter and related hardware. Of course I will have to learn how to drive the car all over again,not that I was that sharp before. Maybe I will need a new cam I don;t know. Maybe a new convertor, I don't know. What I really don't know is WHERE AM I GONG TO GET ANOTHER $6000 to cover the cost of all of this plus get the car ready for next year. Maybe NHRA should hand out sponcer coupons with the new rule book While everyone has been worried about the the 1.15 and hp this gets put on us. I have but 1 question--------WHY?

Re: Wow I Can Use A 3Spd
 

Don't forget you can sell your old PG and parts to....um, um, well somebody might buy it!
With the proceeds from the PG you can also do that valve job you've also always wanted.
Good luck in '08!

Re: Wow I Can Use A 3Spd
 

Lemme see if I have this right. For years guys with your type of combo have complained about not being able to run a 3 speed. NHRA said "NO" because it never came in the car. OK, fast forward to now. Now you get your wish, they allow a 3 speed, any 3 speed, in your combo. Nothing more to bitch about right? NOPE! Now not only do you want the tranny but you want them to GIVE it to you so it won't cost you any money to take advantage of the gift they have given you! I don't think the rules says you MUST change to a 3 speed, it just says they will allow it. Geeeesh. Jim

Re: Wow I Can Use A 3Spd
 

I'm not one to jump out there and spend $6000 to $8000 for a new trans, and related items, shifter, air bottle, etc. God only knows what will be next, but like you said I've complained for years, "if only I could run a 3 speed instead of a pg I might go a little faster. I think the chevelles may be the only 2 sp left in the class. wooooooooooooooo haaaaaaaaaa can't wait. oh yeah, I forgot about our other good fortune, new brake buttons, damn, just when will all the fun stop.

Re: Wow I Can Use A 3Spd
 

Hey Jim $6000=.15! .......looks good dosen't it? But hey may just be enough to blast Zack's ***!!! LOL ;)

Re: Wow I Can Use A 3Spd
 

I just wonder, as knee jerk as NHRA Tech is about the "LETTER of the LAW", as to where all these alleged "Three Speed Powerglides" are coming from, that the Division Five Director has mandated.

He never mentioned Turbo Hydros...

Is there a letter from Zora? Or, Louis Chevrolet?? Or, Marvin Ripes???

I'll never understand how NHRA can be so overtly hyper-critical of techinical issues like valve sizes, that they will toss a car out for a valve that is a few thousandrths of an inch UNDERSIZE in a teardown, but hire someone to write documents that need to be critically correct, i.e., new rules such as this, and put someone in charge of wording the document with such a flagrant disregard for accuracy as to make it genuinely laughable.

Powerglides have been around since 1950.... How can anyone even REMOTELY concerned with drag racing on ANY level, not be aware that they are, and have ALWAYS BEEN two-speed transmissions???

How, indeed...

Guess that's why National DRAGSTER has half a page of corrections to the rulebook just a month or so, after it comes out. Do they have ANYONE proofreading it BEFORE it goes to press??

Apparently not...

What a shame...

Re: Wow I Can Use A 3Spd
 

hey Greg, that's what were talking about my friend, kinda wondering what a second gear would feel like. looks like I'll have to return all those christmas presents for a cash refund. Now, I gotta figure out which one to buy, is that why they call this the silly season?

Re: Wow I Can Use A 3Spd
 

Who has been wishing for a 3spd. Not me, not any of the racers I have talked to about this new rule change, How did this change come about and why? I never saw anything to "vote" on about a transmission change. Who makes these changes without racer input. I would consider this a major performance change in s/s eliminator. What about the racers who can't afford to make the change? Do thay just sit back and take a big negative performance hit? My original question was why was the change made. It certainly wasn't because a few people "complained". How about giving the racers who want to continue using the glide a 100lb weight break. The reacers I talked to that now have a 3spd sure did'nt want to see this new rule. So why was it done and who did it?

Re: Wow I Can Use A 3Spd
 

I've seen reference to allowing 3 speeds in lieu of 2 speeds (auto), lifting the requirement that cars race with the OEM mandated tranny only (i.e, '68 Z-28 allowed an auto trans) and also combining sticks and auto's for the better part of a year, if ot 2 years on this forum. Guess you need to take it seriously when you see something brought up!

Re: Wow I Can Use A 3Spd
 

Sounds like a good idea. I should have built a bracket car with a 383 chevy motor in a ford mustang body with a mopar transmission. With all these rules changes, it would be legal S/S car in about 2 years.

Re: Wow I Can Use A 3Spd
 

Well, this fell out of the sky with little or no discussion...I had heard some GT guys were lobbying for three speeds but I do not think any of the traditional SS guys had. I could be wrong. I got a call from Marv Ripes about three weeks ago asking if I had thought about it...I told him I own 4 PG's and I'm not changing for the basic reason that I want to race a car that was similar to what was built, even though we have some items that have superceded factory original, but this is going too far in my opinion. Add in the extra cost and AHFS "limits" on how fast you can go, and no thanks....where oh where is Farmer when we need him? I'd rather have 2 or 3 dictatorial passionate Class techs/rules makers/HP cops than this everychanging mush we have currently.....

Re: Wow I Can Use A 3Spd
 

Can anyone estimate what the total cost of the changeover will wind up being when top of the line 3-speed tranny, different convertor, new camshaft, and testing are figured in?

It would have been simpler (and a lot cheaper) to take 5 horsepower off the engines that use a powerglide. But then that would have been using good judgement.

Re: Wow I Can Use A 3Spd
 

I think the request were from GT folks, although I don't know who. There was also talk about a 4 speed manual for the 55/56 Chevy. I had asked for Auto's for the Viper, ZO6, Z28, and any other combo that was 'manual only' as the 427 vetts have already. I guess the glide/3 speed is the only thing that passed.

Re: Wow I Can Use A 3Spd
 

Tim,

A good idea, however, I think you have that backwards. Why not add 100lbs to the guys because of the performance enhancement instead of getting an advantage given away for free? Did they deserve this enhancement based on what? AHFS?

These are the give aways that make no rational sense.

Lynn

Re: Wow I Can Use A 3Spd
 

....and no raising of the ceiling on the AHFS. No lopping off of the ridiculously soft indexes at the bottom.
Welcome to Bracket II

Re: Wow I Can Use A 3Spd
 

the car that Q no 1 at fontana now gets to use a 3 -speed also...sounds fair...hmm

Re: Wow I Can Use A 3Spd
 

You can use a aftermarket head but get wacked some hp. The same should be for the use of a 3spd. In answer to the cost between 5-6grand I would think.

Re: Wow I Can Use A 3Spd
 

I agree with this. First off, this should have never passed. Secondly, if you want to run a combo that has never existed, you should be penalized with horsepower/weight. Where is this going and where is it going to take us? What's next?

Re: Wow I Can Use A 3Spd
 

Lots of complaints,but I do not see much logic.Number one at Fontana,Brian McClanahan, 67 Camero ,if it were a 69 it could run a three speed under 2007 rules. At Las Vegas in October, only three of the 99 would get a three speed Jody Lang, Mark Faul and Greg Luneack. It is all about choices.

Re: Wow I Can Use A 3Spd
 

Timmy

You have recieved a further enhancement. Maybe you can swap trannys with the twins, slow them down, pick you up.

As we found out last week we only get to vote on certain issues.

Re: Wow I Can Use A 3Spd
 

yes ofcourse..but they are not the same org.class,,being able to move up one class was also a another questionable product...it changed alot when smallblocks could move up to "big block classes"...well now give em 3 speeds also..well..It WAS all about choices...some choose the 69 to get the 3 speed

but it was strange that the 2 and 3 speeds got factored at the same time in the 350 chevy case...were does that come from?...

Re: Wow I Can Use A 3Spd
 

I threw around the 100# weight brake for the last year, most people I talked to about it agreed that would be the way to go, take weight out of the car instead of money out of your pocket, then when all this 3sp s--t, came about and I made a few phone calls and was told the whole deal was off and no changes were in the works and came home yesterday and wham, it's not in the works any longer it's a done deal. As a s/s racer on a budget, guess the new trailer is out and the new trans is in, if I can figure out how to pay for all this change over. Bracket busters will love the prices of the obsolete PG's, shifters, and the rest of the JUNK.

Re: Wow I Can Use A 3Spd
 

ll

Re: Wow I Can Use A 3Spd
 

For those of you who may not know this trans rule is a one way street.
If your combination was a powerglide only then you can use a 3 speed
however if your combo only came with a 3 speed you CAN NOT use a powerglide.
If we are to have a new rule it should be the same for everone or just leave it the way it was.
I have several pg's gathering dust which would be great as a spare or better yet run when
track conditions are the pits.--- but as it stands you need another $6000 3 speed for spare.