Whither 1966 D Darts for Stock

[Paul Ceasrine]

D-Dart,

If anyone wants to contact me about D-Dart info and/or several photo's of
an original D-Dart, you may.
e/mail: jvshank@connectnc.net
As for the photo's. I have several from 1971, of a woman racer
named Lori Kane. Her white Dart was lettered Kandy Kane across the doors, with a red and white striped Candy Cane painted in between the
lettering. Her car was sponsored by Garrison Shell, Garrison NY.
D-Dart was painted on the front fenders.
If you look closely at the windows, the car is classed in H/Stock..
From the information that I have gathered, the D-Dart 275 HP rating was
re-factored to 255 in 1971, re-classifieing the car from F/Stock to
H/Stock. Now when NHRA dropped the factoring of the car from stock is still a mystery.

Paul C

[Steve Hagberg]

D Darts:

Well I just dusted off my 1966 rule book and discovered a couple of interesting things. First, the classes and weight breaks were not uniform. Stick cars started at S/S, then A/S down through O/S. But the automatic cars stopped at J/SA. The super stock class was 0.00 to 6.99, then as follows: A, 7..00 to 8.69, B, 8.70 to 9.49, C, 9.50 to 10.59, D, 10.60 to 11.29, E, 11.30 to 11.88. and on down the line. How they came up with these breaks is a mystery. Another interesting note is that if your car wasn't in the classification guide, they just weighed your car, subtracted any fuel at 6 lbs/gal and divided by the factory advertised HP, and that was your class. There were no NHRA 'FACTORS' for HP, just factory advertised ratings. So the D Darts fell in the D class at 10.60 to 11.29 lbs/hp. Thsi sure brings back memories of a simpler time!

[Paul Ceasrine]

Steve,

Great job in posting the 1966 stock class factor ratios.
I guess my mind is not that out of tune, I was only off a little on the factor ratios.
If you could, would you give me the factor for F/Stock in 1966.
It started at 11.89, according to your guide, what ratio did it end at.
in 1966 I ran a 66' Barracuda 273/235 HP, and it fell into F/Stock, at the high end of the weight break.
In 68', we ran a 67' Barracuda 273/235 HP that was classified in J/Stock, when the factoring changed. 12.50 to 12.99 for our class.

Thanks,

Paul

[Steve Hagberg]

Paul:

The F class went from 11.89 to 12.49, and then G stock went from 12.50 to 13.99 seconds. The bad part of the old system, as I'm sure you remember, is that if your car didn't fit in at the low end of the class you just had to carry the extra weight ( you couldn't lighten up to the minimum). Running off the national record was also a problem if you happened to be in a class that had been bombed by a fast car. All these problems eventually led to the formation of Bracket Racing. Interesting that 43 years later we're still arguing over how to make class racing fair.

Steve

[Paul Ceasrine]

Steve,

Thanks for the F/Stock factor rating. brings back memories of when stock class racing was fun. Bracket racing just took the fun out of us
4-shift stick guys,
Anyway, I found an old Hot Rod magazine with 1966 NHRA info in it.
NHRA's intention in 1966 was to help rate the classes for the new
1966 model year cars, as oppossed to just regular factoring by .50 or
.70. That's why the factor rating is all over the board for 1966.
A/S was to be set for 66' street Hemi's, 327/350 HP Chevy II's,
427/425 HP Biscaynes and 427/425HP Galaxies.
B/S was for 396/375 HP Chevelle's.
C/S was for 389/360 HP GTO's and 400/360 HP Olds 442's.
D/S was for 289/271 HP Hi Po Mustangs.
NHRA's intention was to try to balance out the new 1966 cars into
specific brackets. Of course, everything got messed up over the
years.

paul