Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg Hill
442 olds. it seems like a red olds 442 from Michigan runs pretty fair. I told your Dad last year who could build you guys motors that would run. I spend a lot of time and money on my stuff trying to make it run fast. I just don.t like the idea of purpose built factory race cars that don't have a vin number and were never street legal, to say nothing of their bogus horsepower ratings being able to race in Stock. If I'm a half a second faster than you one of those new challengers would be a second faster. Just take a look at the specs on the 305hp hemi.
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Time, money, a good combo, real testing. That all enters into it. There are some people that have more runs on their oil in the crankcase than we have on our hone job. We pulled the engine back out to dyno test and try things just to see if we could compete. It is fun for us. We don't have the time to run for points. I figure skipping one race funded our dyno session. Some might choose to go to the race and risk getting beat by a fresher or more competitive car. We missed out on an extra race. That is the beauty of the choices. We all have them. Trying different engines to see what is more competitive is part of it too. We have run a 283 220 hp 327 275 hp and a 327 350 hp in our car. We still get our butts kicked in the 283 at times, but it is still a fun and competitive combo. It requires some maintanance though. I can't speak for any Olds combo like Daryl's or Kaekel's, but in ours, if we stopped testing, we would be no where close. Even at that I have been pounded on by the likes of Tony Hernandez and Steve Brack. I am close enough to be competitive only because we continually test and try to improve. If we would have stopped testing 5 years ago, we would be at least .5 tenths off of them too. (instead of .10-.15)
I don't know what to think about the new cars. I love the involvement, I just think that NHRA and the automakers could get what they need without dropping them in to the mix like they did. It isn't the first time, this just seems a bit extreme. I have to wonder how many cars will actually compete. I would think Indy runs the risk of being the ultimate dog and pony show for those cars if the factors work out the way the seem to. That would be a shame. Maybe there ought to be a teardown money benefit to at least line em up in the barn. ( LOL)