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Old 03-09-2018, 02:53 PM   #16
geoklass
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Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Monrovia, California
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Default Re: Optional Super Stock Indy 1961

I was looking at my old NHRA Rulebooks this morning and found the wording used in 1961 that led to the O/SS class at the NHRA Nationals that year. In the '61 Rulebook for Stock Class (under ENGINE) it states as follows: "Engine in each car must be of the specific type, year and make as the car in in which it is being run." This line is how some racers were able to install a 409 engine in a Chevy that was not factory installed when the car was first produced. It goes on to say, "Engine equipment other than that regularly produced for assembly line installation by the manufacturer will not be permitted." That line is why NHRA did not let special over the counter factory parts run in S/S, and created the Optional S/S class for the Nationals.


This was rectified in the 1962 NHRA Rulebook. In the Stock Class section in bold print: "All cars in stock class manufactured after June 1, 1961, must be factory assembly-line produced and generally show-room sales available."


In 1962, the FX (Factory Experimental) class was introduced. It read as follows: "The Factory Experimental class is for stock automobiles that use manufacturers' optional equipment announced on or after June 1, 1961; optional equipment that is not necessarily factory assembly-line installed show-room sales available."


This same sentence was also used in the '63 NHRA Rulebook. What the factories did (especially GM with the Z-11 Chevy and Swiss-cheese Pontiacs) was to produce a few cars that had this "optional equipment" but WERE factory assembly line installed, hoping to be able to get them into Super Stock instead of Factory Experimental. Had they continued to produce those cars in quantity, NHRA would have most likely declared them to be S/S legal, but there so few made (57 Chevy Z-11 Impalas and 14 Swiss Cheese Pontiacs), it did not happen. When they showed up at Pomona in February '63, the so-called factory cars were all lettered with S/S. but NHRA declared them to be ineligible for S/S, and created the Limited Production (L/P) class for them instead. I was there and remember quite well the meeting between the factory reps and NHRA (it was NOT a quite meeting). Ford eventually did produce enough cars and NHRA did permit them to run in S/S class later in the year.


These were great times, the "Super Stock Years", when it was factory vs. factory. It's long gone now, and will never return like it once was.
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