Quote:
Originally Posted by JMan
Aside from the debate on tire size and back-half. It was brought up about Ford and Mopar cylinder head program.
I think that is partially to blame for lack of new interest in P/S.
As much as I like the DRCE and Hemi 06 engines, they do not interest the young street guy...The demographic the Pro Stock used to play too.
If there is change in Pro Stock, it would be imperative to utilize OEM engine design that the street crowd could relate to and have pride in.
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You're not going to make that happen without the old weight break system that was killing Pro Stock 35 years or so ago. Weight breaks and factors are not going to work for Pro Stock. NHRA has neither the desire nor the ability to deal with it, and the racers will despise it. The weight break fiasco was the exact reason for the 500 cubic inches and 2350 pounds format, without which, Pro Stock would have been dead 30 years ago.
We were told how the new cars were going to bring in all this "new, young blood", and yet, it hasn't happened. You have a few guys who have the resources to buy and race the cars, and most of them were already racing. The new cars should have brought these "young street guys" people keep talking about, but they didn't. Trying to make Pro Stock into a class for the new cars won't bring the "young street guys" in, either.
The "young street guy" is never going to care about Pro Stock. Pro Stock is a hard core racers class, only hard core racers and hard core fans will ever really care about it.
For years, I worked in a shop that did work for all sorts of customers. I still, in my own business, do work for a broad range of people. I can tell you that around 95 out of 100 of today's "young car enthusiasts" do not give a damn about classes with "all those stupid rules". They care no more about Pro Stock than they do about Stock Eliminator and Super Stock, and you're not going to convert even 10% of them without wholesale changes to the classes, from Stock Eliminator on up. Changes that completely replace the character and style of the classes as they are now.
Make Pro Stock a healthy class for the hard core racer and fan, and then you can draw a small percentage in, and convert them to hard core.
NHRA started letting the bodies get out of control around 1977 when people were "drooping" the front clip. It went down hill rapidly from there, just like when NASCAR started with all the goofy body rules, instead of making the teams run a body in white. Now both NHRA Pro Stock and NASCAR cars look like blobs with no character. That's the first trend to reverse completely, in the next year or two.
Then, with some common sense rules, they can reign in some of the over the top money in the engines. Doing that might even make it possible for some of the stuff Ford and Mopar already have to be competitive. One 1350 cfm throttle body for the fuel injection system. Pull the maximum bore size back. There are several easily policed rule changes that can get the class back under control.
Make them look exactly like the current production street cars, with the exception of a reasonable scoop, and 14"x32" tires, and reign in the out of control engine insanity, then you might have a car the fans like and identify, the teams can afford to race, and the factories can support.
Otherwise, you can create a new class, call it Pro Stock, drive off most of the current shrinking support it does have, and wonder why no one else showed up. NHRA got a good start on that for 2016.