Quote:
Originally Posted by dwydendorf
The Super Stock Gt cars were created because Nhra and the oem manufacturers needed to showcase the new body styles that were comming out of Detroit in the early 1980's. Nhra has always sought the manufacturers for sponsorship money and many Super Stock racers were opting to build older cars instead of the newer Smog motor combos. Newer engine combos were fewer and so Nhra decided to allow the older engines to be mated to a newer body style, offering more combinations and offering the racers the option of racing an engine that was already developed. I have never heard of a lack of older bodies was the reason for the GT classes being created, after all look how many SS/AH hemi cars are in the mix and many of them are clones. If you have enough money you can find an older body, same with head castings.
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There was discussion involving availability / cost of the older bodies although you are correct the emphasis was on the newer bodies and appealing to the dollars available from Detroit from a marketing perspective.
What I'm trying to say is the same gripes that were heard from racers of "traditional" SS racers (same make / model / year engine in like chassis) would be the same arguments against non-oem aluminum heads being used today. I'd like to spend more time here but have work to do. So follow along with my poor logic and lousy comparisons....
GT gets a more aerodynamic car - SS has to deal w/ cast iron issues
GT gets a newer car that's easy to find - SS gets a head thats hard and expensive to find
GT gets a car that doesn't have 100,000 miles on it - SS gets a metal fatigued car
GT says build one; your allowed - SS says, "I've had this car 20 years & not changing"
Hopefully you can see my point that these things just keep happening with NHRA, everybody has their point of view, they all hunker down together and in the end life goes on.
I'm for aluminium heads (about $1500 from Edelbrock for my AMC) because I don't think one group deserves an advantage over another. Will I rush out and buy a set tomorrow if approved? No, can't afford it right now. But if / when my cast iron heads start leaking all over I sure will appreciate that option.
And nobody has mentioned thermal efficiency. Maybe the guy with a 8.5:1 compression engine won't benefit from aluminum heads? So let him run his choice.