Billet cams and lifter supply

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Originally Posted by tavirace

I know I'll be classed as a lunatic but I see is the cause of all this fuss and expense is the obsession in stock and super/stock with UNDER. The index for for super gas is 9.90 the index for G/SA is 12.00 that's how it should stay. It's of no value to go 9.20 in super gas it could be of no value to go 11.20 in G/SA. In a heads up run you could still let it fly and you could still have class eliminations but do away with the qualifying ego trip, it could reduce expenses and create a new element in the game. Otherwise the never ending rule change and technology roller coaster is endless and for many they just can't keep up with it.

That sounds like good comparison, but have you ever paid attention on the engines they use in the 8.90 9.90 and 10.90 classes? Almost all of them are capable of going a full second under, and some go double that. Go bring your 10.90 124mph super street car to a race and see how much mph your competiton has on you.

Racing is a competitive sport, and most of us aren't happy with just going fast enough. It's the nature of our sport and what pushes us to keep working. As the rules change those who can afford it, and some that can't, will push the limits of our allowed parts until there is nothing left, or at least until we can't afford to find any more hp. A friend of mine who worked for a Nascar engine shop in the 90s said when he worked for Robert Yates, they spent over a million dollars in testing to find less then 10hp in an engine that I believe made around 700 back then.

As soon as rules change such as valve springs, rockers, cams, heads, intakes ,etc, the limits are opened up again to find new hp. If roller lifters became legal, 500 to 3000 dollar lifters would be the norm, cam profiles would start changing immediately for those who could afford it, throwing those old cams in a pile, and finding even more hp to be able to run better and further under the index. A quick browse through a PAC price sheet will show that you can spend well over 1500 dollars for some good roller springs,and retainers. And after all that, some of those same people who just needed to find an affordable lifter, would then be the same ones down the road to post how we need to lower the indexes more. Stockers and even Super Stockers only got faster because of rule changes and piles of money. I am all for spending as much as you can to make your combo go faster, and don't fault anyone to try to get the rules changed to get an advantage. But there is more to " we need an affordable easy to get lifter" than just that statement.