2008 Cobra Jets belong in Stock

[Bruce Noland]

I suppose that nhra and Ford sat down several times over a period of months and hashed out a deal. They appear to have covered all the minimum requirements to sell this deal to the public and the racers. Sure it's a Ford Racing Parts car that did not flow from an assembly line to the track. But Ford covered the 50 unit requirement by selling them through their dealerships. No big deal. nhra and Ford covered all the bases; except one.

nhra did not make a good faith effort to determine the actual Horsepower figures on these motors. I recieved an overnight letter from nhra, signed by Glen Gray and Danny Gracia. The letter simply stated that they accept the manufacturers figures and reserve the right to make adjustments. I guess they were referring to the ahfs.

nhra needs to do it's job! I would like to see one of the new CJ cars that will be coming out of MPR (or any other high value shop) on an independent chassis dyno. I don't think it is too much to ask nhra to find an independent shop with a knowledgeable tuner to test one of these race ready CJs and issue a public report. Then, if they want, we can locate some really fast 396, 427, 426 and 428 cars to go on the same dyno with the same tuner. The new CJ owners and tuners should have no problem with this suggestion.

[ss3845]

Originally Posted by Bruce Noland

nhra needs to do it's job!. I would like to see one of the new CJ cars that will be coming out of MPR (or any other high value shop) on an independant chassis dyno. I don't think it is too much to ask nhra to find an independant shop with a knowledgeable tuner to test one of these race ready CJs and issue a public report. Then, if they want, we can locate some really fast 396, 427, 426 and 428 cars to go on the same dyno with the same tuner. The new CJ owners and tuners should have no problem with this suggestion.

Why stop there. Why don't we get every combo in the class guide on that dyno?

Have you been hangin' with Michael Phelps?

[Bruce Noland]

No-namer,
I don't know where you guys get off with the smart remarks all the time but it isn't helping your cause. We aren't talking about every car on the sheet. We are talking about just one. A car that has no nhra history and one that nhra admits they have not investigated. Now stay on topic and drop the dopey remarks.

[ss3845]

So lets say they put it on a chassis dyno and it make 550hp at the rear wheels. What do you think NHRA should do?

[GUMP]

Originally Posted by Bruce Noland

No-namer,
I don't know where you guys get off with the smart remarks all the time but it isn't helping your cause. We aren't talking about every car on the sheet. We are talking about just one. A car that has no nhra history and one that nhra admits they have not investigated. Now stay on topic and drop the dopey remarks.

Since when has the NHRA ever done what you are requesting? Are you willing to have your new Corvette's HP adjusted in the same way? If they do that for one combination they have to do it for every combination. Then you will get all the comments about sandbagging on the dyno pulls when the results aren't what people want to see.

Let the Cobra Jets have their day in the sun.

Daren Poole-Adams
IHRA 9043

[Tim Kish]

Why is it so clear that these cars are so GROSSLY underfactored? Why can they not produce 600+ HP in race trim - the older combinations in A & AA do and most are factored at equal or less HP than the Cobra Jet (A couple of the Hemis are factored higher but not by much). Again take a guess at how much HP it takes a 67 Fairlane to go 138mph - it's a helluva lot more than 425. The system has never been based on legitimate HP since the rules started allowing Stock to not be "stock".

[Dick Kirkpatrick]

It is like 1964 all over again, only in 2009 there is only ford playing the game.
In 64 ford had the dual quad high riser Tbolt, chevy had their lightweigt impalas and biscaynes with either the Z-11 or "mystery motor" and chrysler had their acid dipped 330's complete with hemi 426's
Add in the 421 super duty light weight pontiac catalinas and the game was on.
Everyone had a lot of fun until they started building funny cars.

Just let it happen, it is good for the sport and the manufacturers. Even the ones that aren't playing the game right now.

[Jeff Lee]

Items like missing safety bumpers, lite-weight windows, those are items that make a car built by the OEM not DOT legal. Am I wrong? And in Stock Eliminator, it is not legal to ad or remove such items. Right?
I know the Challenger has such items and I believe the CJ500 has the same items. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
And the Challenger has non-EPA approved engine(s). I'm all for these cars being built by the factory and raced in Superstock were traditionally that is were factory "experimentals" were placed.
I even think some cars like the GT500 Shelby should be placed in Stock as they do in fact offer such a car and it is street legal. It would be great if ther was a weight-break for all the new hot rods, even the 638 HP 'Vette. I think it's great for the sport. But if it's an "experimental" nothing has changed since 1968. It's a Superstocker.

[Bruce Noland]

Guys,
I think the CJs are really neat race cars. I look forward to watching them run, but it would be very helpful for those of us who have something at stake in this issue to know that nhra is at least attempting to do it's job. So far the guys who have been hammering away at my posts on this subject don't have a car in these classes and in some cases they don't race at nhra events. Nothing is foolproof but searching for a reasonable solution makes sense.

[Tim Kish]

Originally Posted by Bruce Noland

Guys,
I think the CJs are really neat race cars. I look forward to watching them run, but it would be very helpful for those of us who have something at stake in this issue to know that nhra is at least attempting to do it's job. So far the guys who have been hammering away at my posts on this subject don't have a car in these classes and in some cases they don't race at nhra events. Nothing is foolproof but searching for a reasonable solution makes sense.

Nope I don't have a AA or A stocker myself. But as Lead Product Engineer at Eaton Supercharger and technical advisor to Ford Racing on the supercharger I'd say I've got a dog in this one and I'm up for as much constructive discussion as the umpteen thousand viewers of the multiple posts on this subject are hoping to see. And while I want to see my product successful it needs to as evenly matched as possible to the more established combinations. Since there is no way to know the absolute performance potential of any factory produced engine prior to someone spending the time and money to build it and put it through its paces. So the options are to either change the name of the current category to Nostalgia Super Stock and do not allow any new combinations or try to constructively support NHRA in keeping the playing field as level as possible.