What's wrong with Stock?

[Alan Roehrich]

Originally Posted by Andys dad

We do not have enough money to stay fast anymore - we have been passed by in four short years by the blower cars

When we bought ours - we knew we could not stay fast without a lot of work.

You guys on here still have not acknowledge the new cars take work to stay fast - I do not need recognition or support.- from anyone on here.

You guys (on here) hope time stands still for another 40 years - it will not.

In the new world cars do not have carburetors or distributors - there is not a single current car produced today which does not have fuel injection and a factory computer.

A novel concept might be to race cars which are available today. That is what the big three think and NHRA does not disagree.

Its about selling cars - not having a way to race nostalgia cars forever and ever and ever.

OK - I am done for today.

Well, you asked for it. Several of us, 6 years ago, warned everyone that the new expensive cars would have their combinations made obsolete every 2-3 years at best. All any factory has to do is draw up a new engine combination on paper and get NHRA to approve it with a nice new soft factor. They don't have to build the engines, they don't even have to sell new race cars with the engines in them. Which is exactly why they should be Factory Experimental cars and not Stock Eliminator cars. Because the factories are experimenting.

It has absolutely nothing to do with fuel injection, distributorless ignition, and computers. Those have been in Stock Eliminator for 20 years. No one cares about that. That is not what makes the new cars perform.

What they DO care about is over 0.600" lift roller cams, 1000+ CFM throttle bodies, tunnel ram intakes, and what amounts to CNC ported heads (they CNC port a head, pull a mold, and cast the new head). None of which have ever been in Stock Eliminator before, and very little of which, if any, is seen on production street cars. Again, these are Factory Experimental cars. These are near Super Stock engines running in Stock Eliminator, and many of them starting out factored at or below what the older cars are factored at, with the older car having half the horsepower potential.

It has everything to do with the factory race cars not even being close to the street legal new cars for sale.

You want to make this about selling new production cars? Fine. Race new production street cars. Let's see how it works. I'm all for it. By all means, bring on the new production street cars.

The fact is, we're racing cars and combinations that were sold and driven on the street, against cars and combinations that would never, and could never, be sold for street use. I don't have a problem racing an old 427 powered 69 Camaro against a 2014 Camaro with a Stock Eliminator prepared engine based on the engine that comes in it when you drive it off the showroom floor and buy license plates to drive on the street. What I do have a problem with is racing an old 427 powered 69 Camaro against a new 2014 Camaro with a built for racing engine, that is almost as radical as my 396/375 Super Stock engine, that cannot be sold in a new car to drive on the street. Especially when it is factored almost the same as our old Camaro.

Now, not only do the factory race cars get soft factors and get to run in Stock Eliminator, they now get their own set of rules, and an AHFS waiver, so they can qualify as far under the index as they want with no penalty, while the older cars get none of the above.