True Horsepower Classes in NHRA

[Dick Butler]

I am never sure what the HP rating is all about. Only thing I can imagine is a reason for someone to buy a new car. Newer factors are always a guess. (Usually off by 100 or more HP).Even the old cars lurking in the books are found to be off by many hp and that's why people day dream of dominating by building them. Once they are built and paid for a different combo surfaces and many "perfect combinations" become also rans. This is the long term fault of the lb/HP classification method but it is the only way to get apples, oranges and bananas into a class system to race together.
Many people miss Modified where is was lb/cubic inchs. This took away the fact your combo was falsely factored and that's why you lost the race. Some complain that money affected these classes but maybe people should look again at the costs of a new Stocker from the factory which cannot be licensed if it fails to win.