Stocker roll cage bar beyond firewall rule......

[David Lee]

I wonder where he got his degree in mechanical engineering. .

[SSDiv6]

Originally Posted by David Lee

I wonder where he got his degree in mechanical engineering. .

What makes you think a mechanical engineer gave the response?

[David Lee]

Originally Posted by SSDiv6

What makes you think a mechanical engineer gave the response?

I was try to state that he was very ignorant in his response. Any roll bat that would extend beyond the firewall would be helpful in a front end crash.

The statement was sacasm

[Karl Owens]

now there are 8 second stock eliminators, shoudnt safety be #1 priority. What is NHRAs reasoning behind not allowing roll bars to tie the complete chassis together? Firewall flex and broken trans cases can be dangerous at high speeds. Look how long it took NHRA to allow aftermarket brakes in Stock which in my opinion any component that improves safety should never be an issue. The other issue I have problem with is steering, I think rack and pinion should be allowed in all classes, to replace antique steering on most cars beside newer ones.

[David Lee]

Originally Posted by Karl Owens

now there are 8 second stock eliminators, shoudnt safety be #1 priority. What is NHRAs reasoning behind not allowing roll bars to tie the complete chassis together? Firewall flex and broken trans cases can be dangerous at high speeds. Look how long it took NHRA to allow aftermarket brakes in Stock which in my opinion any component that improves safety should never be an issue. The other issue I have problem with is steering, I think rack and pinion should be allowed in all classes, to replace antique steering on most cars beside newer ones.

Thank you!

[Billy Nees]

Originally Posted by Karl Owens

now there are 8 second stock eliminators, shoudnt safety be #1 priority. What is NHRAs reasoning behind not allowing roll bars to tie the complete chassis together? Firewall flex and broken trans cases can be dangerous at high speeds. Look how long it took NHRA to allow aftermarket brakes in Stock which in my opinion any component that improves safety should never be an issue. The other issue I have problem with is steering, I think rack and pinion should be allowed in all classes, to replace antique steering on most cars beside newer ones.

Ho Boy, here we go again!
And extending the cage is ONLY a safety issue. There's NO performance benefit at all to stiffening up the chassis or getting that heavy-*** old steering out of the front and replacing it with lite stuff.
Here's a novel idea, If you personally don't feel safe in your 8 second Stocker, then get a 12 second Stocker!

[Karl Owens]

Originally Posted by Billy Nees

Ho Boy, here we go again!
And extending the cage is ONLY a safety issue. There's NO performance benefit at all to stiffening up the chassis or getting that heavy-*** old steering out of the front and replacing it with lite stuff.
Here's a novel idea, If you personally don't feel safe in your 8 second Stocker, then get a 12 second Stocker!

That means cars that came originally equipped with a steering rack have an advantage.

[Billy Nees]

Originally Posted by Karl Owens

That means cars that came originally equipped with a steering rack have an advantage.

Yes, they do. Build a new car!

[Rory McNeil]

Originally Posted by Karl Owens

That means cars that came originally equipped with a steering rack have an advantage.

Just curious as to what advantage a newer car that came with a rack & pinion steering system has that can be atributed to the steering rack, besides weight? Personally I have seen too many cobbled together rack installations in cars that origionally came with steering boxes , all in the interest of weight, space packaging, or because its "trick", with no thought given to toe change during suspension travel, bump steer, or other geometry issues. Frankly I would feel safer in a 40 year old factory engineered steering box setup in the car that was so equipped from Detroit, than some junkyard rack unit scabbed into the same car. If you are so concerned about the percieved dangers of all the dangerous "antique" factory stuff failing from age, maybe you need to either buy a new Stocker, or buy a Super Gas/Super Street full tube chassis, so you won`t be concerned about all this worn out dangerous factory installed metal. I can see it now, they allow racks, and then some people will be whining that they need to have new fabricated tube front frame rails to make it fit properly. Then they will need hand fabricated aluminum special oil pans to clear the rack. Of course new billet titanium spindles and coil over shocks would be "better" as they are purpose built and free of years of driving stress,....where does it all end? If you really feel that a rack is such a major advantage, then build a car that was factory equipped with one. I`m sure the guys racing 390/427/428 Ford unibody cars wish they didn`t have those damn shock towers in the way, same with early Novas. I bet more than a few MoPar racers wish they didn`t have to deal with the front torsion bars too. Point is, all cars have some pluses and minuses in their factory issued equipment, thats part of the challenge of the game. Besides, if NHRA doesn`t think the average racer is cabable enough to build their own header collector retaining devices, not much chance we could fabricate our own steering systems, right? As fas as I`m concerned, NHRA has already allowed far too much aftermarket lightweight (oops, I meant SAFER more modern equipment) in the class as it is.

[SSDiv6]

Originally Posted by Karl Owens

now there are 8 second stock eliminators, shoudnt safety be #1 priority. What is NHRAs reasoning behind not allowing roll bars to tie the complete chassis together? Firewall flex and broken trans cases can be dangerous at high speeds. Look how long it took NHRA to allow aftermarket brakes in Stock which in my opinion any component that improves safety should never be an issue. The other issue I have problem with is steering, I think rack and pinion should be allowed in all classes, to replace antique steering on most cars beside newer ones.

The Cobra Jet, COPO and DP cars, have a minimum of a 10 point cage that is good up to 8.50 seconds. Any car that exceeds 8.50 seconds, requires a SFI Spec 25.4 or 25.5 cage.

I don't understand what you mean by not allowing roll bars to tie the chassis.

You can take a roll bar and turn it into a roll cage and tie up the chassis by welding it to the frame connectors in a unibody car or welding it to the actual frame in a car that has a full frame. As a matter of fact, the rules requires in cars with a full chassis, for the roll cage and/or roll bar, to be welded to the chassis.

A well designed roll cage will not require any additional tubes to go past the firewall. I have seen many cars that run faster than 8.50 seconds with a SFI Spec 25.4 or 25.5 cage without any additional tubes past the firewall.

By the way, a well built roll cage, can improve the performance of the car.