Interest in Modified?

[bill dedman]

One of the big problems in communication about this subject is NOMENCLATURE.
A lot of times, two guys will be saying the same thing, or wanting the same thing, but saying something else, because they have the NAMES wrong.
.
Here's what I mean:

Modified Eliminator was an Eliminator "bracket" that was comprised of a variety of different types of cars that ran a variety of different CLASSES. There were Modified Production-CLASSED cars, which were a lot like a Super Stocker with a full-race engine, but the engine and chassis had to come from the same manufacturer (a Ford engine in a Ford body, etc.) Gas Coupe classed cars which were full race engines in any body you wanted, but with a 10-percent engine-setback rule. also ran in MODIFIED ELIMINATOR, Street Roadsters (open cars) with basically the same rules as Gas Coupes (10-percent setback cars) did, too..

Within these individual CLASSES, there were A, B, C, and so-on, depending on pounds per cubic inch.
For example, a B Gas Coupe would have to weigh 9 pounds per cubic inch; a C Gasser would have to weigh 11 pounds per cubic inch, and so-on. They also had separate classes just for 6-cylinder and 4-cyinder cars, And, later on, compact cars like VW's small Toyotas, etc.

So, you had MODIFIED ELIMINATOR made up of a lot of different kinds of cars, among them, MODIFIED PRODUCTION cars.

People get things confused when they start lumping Modified ELIMINATOR, an eliminator bracket, with Modified PRODUCTION, which is a type of class.

I think that has happened here.

So, it looks to me like what the bulk of the people who have posted on this thread really want is a place for MODIFIED PRODUCTION cars to race, not Modified Eliminator cars, which would then exclude the 10-percent setback Gas Coupes and "open" Srreet Roadsters, both of which were a part of Modified ELIMINATOR back in the day when that Eliminator existed.

Insofar as transmission usage goes, there definitely were Modified Production cars at the time that used automatics as well as manual transmissions. I remember watching Earl Britt's record-holding inline six, 1954 Corvette run at Marion, South Dakota with a Turbo Hydro many times, for example.

That doesn't mean you have to allow automatics NOW, with a new set of rules, but don't think tthere weren;t Modified Production classed cars with automatics back then, because there were.

And as far as I can recall, NHRA never had a class called "Factory Modified." I have slept since the '70s, so I surely could be wrong about that, but I really can't remember ever hearnig about a class called "Factory Modifed." "Factory Experimental," yes... There was A/FX, B/FX, and C/FX for cars like the Z-11 '63 Chevys, the '63 421 Pontiac Tempests, and other cars that didn't qualify for Super Stock for whatewver reason (most often, too few were built.)

I think this idea for a new Eliminator (maybe with different CLASS weight breaks, or not) featuring exciting, high winding small blocks, AND, perhaps, heavier Big Block cars, with manual transmissions, is a great idea, but as someone said earlier, in order to ensure a lot of active participation, it MAY be necessary to allow automatics to run, maybe with some sort of incentive for the stick cars.

I hope I didn't insult anyone's intelligence by posting this. I realize that most of you have been around dtag racing for a long time, and probably already knew everything I said... but the confusion that seems to result when somebody says "CLASS" when they mean "ELIMINATOR" causes a lot of mis-understanding in a discussion like this. And I believe it's really unnecessary, when you think about it.

Bring back Modified.... Production!!!!

Bill