[bill dedman]

Evan Smith said: "You are nowhere to be found because this car doesn't affect you! So you won't hear any chatter about how soft this combo is from the CJ bashers. I don't mean to bring any negativity to Bob Shaw, as he clearly plays by the rules, but it is funny how much talk there was about a car even before it ran and how little talk there is about a slower-class Stocker that runs further under than any Stocker I have seen. "

I think that is definitely a part of the reason for the dearth of posts about the car in question, but the other part, that you didn't mention was this: The feeling among the people who did post about the Mustangs, is that NHRA "bought" (went along with, not "purchased") the 425HP factor that was suggested to them as a favor to Ford Motor Company, so that these cars could enjoy a strategic advantage over the competition, at least until somebody defied (or, ignored) the AHFS and pulled a "Henson" and got the factor up to where it belongs. The smell from those circumstances offended the racers running that class, and their fans, so they made their feelings public.

The difference between that scenario and the T/SA debacle is this: Nobody envisions Cadillac Motor Car Company imploring the NHRA HP Factoring Comittee to bless the 350 Olds motor used in the Seville (with EFI) with an unreasonably low number. NHRA did that little bit of genius all by themselves... There was no aura of "conspiracy" surrounding the unrealistically low factor assigned to the Caddy; Mr. Shaw just happened to discover it and take advantage of it, and he didn't build 50 race-ready cars to exploit it.

The combination of those facts, and the relatively low number of participants of T/SA, combined to keep comments about the bizarre nature of this situation to a minimum.

It's apples and oranges, really, even though the ridiculous joke it made of the T/SA index is surely worth of discussion. I'll bet NHRA's Tech department is glad Bob Shaw doesn't have a twin brother doing the same thing... LOL!