CLASS RACER FORUM - View Single Post

Greg Gay · 04-27-2020, 02:33 PM

When my father started racing in 1971, I thought that New England Dragway was an AHRA track. It turns out that it was actually NHRA, but had been AHRA and many of the Stock-type vehicles were set up for the Formula Stock classes, so they kept these classes in effect for several years on a local basis. We’re all sitting home fantasizing about racing, so let’s fantasize about Classes and combinations that don’t exist. I that I could dig up and old rulebook, but I’m going to go by memory at this point. If this thread catches on, I can look into it further. As I recall, the Classes were based on pounds per cubic inch, starting with A at 7.00-7.49, and then going to B at 7.50 to 7.99. Let’s assume that they went up by .5 and weighed the cars with the driver (similar to the change in Modified years ago). Back then, you had to run off the factory shipping weight. Today, we’ll say that you can go to the Class minimum, but you can only run one Class, the natural class of your car.

The chassis and suspension rules were similar to today’s Stockers, but limited to 4.56 gears. You could run a fiberglass hood, with a hood scoop, we’ll call it 5”.
850 cfm carburetor. Aluminum intake. No porting of the heads (let’s say what will pass in Stock these days), but you could run any head that would bolt onto the block. I don’t recall the rule back then, but let’s say no chamfering of the bores for valve clearance. Camshafts were limited to .525 lift above 375 cubic inches, and .500 below 375. Today’s hydraulics are pretty much solids anyway, so let’s scratch that Back then, hydraulics had to run hydraulic lifters and solids could run solids, no roller cams. .060 overbore and will give it the .015 on the stroke. Again, these were only the engines and sizes that came in the car, and you were classified by the original cubic inch, not what it actually measured with the overbore. Any compression ratio. There were no aftermarket rods, except maybe aluminum, so we’ll modernize it with aftermarket rods and pistons acceptable, but they must meet the stock weight. Valve reliefs acceptable.

These cars were very much like the future Super Modified Classes in the original release. I think the trick was to find the biggest head that you could fit on the smallest cubic inch. I remember one pair of brothers that ran 361 Chryslers because they were feeding the smallest cubic inch B motor with Max Wedge heads. A Boss 302 Mustang was another fast car at the time. A 396 was probably a lot more popular than a 427. 283’s with 2.02 valve heads were popular.

Some of the guys who ran these classes at Epping were Jim Boudreau, Vic Santos, Bill Baylis, Bob Broadbent, and Brad Rose. Tom Boucher may have had one, as well. I know that Bench Racer will chime in on this one, because his brother or brother-in-law ran the IHRA Formula Stock Classes before switching to NHRA Super Stock.

Yes, this is a waste of time, but it beats discussing the virus. What would you build?

04-27-2020, 02:33 PM	#1
Greg Gay Member Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Vermont Posts: 385 Likes: 21 Liked 283 Times in 70 Posts	Enough Covid Bull$hit When my father started racing in 1971, I thought that New England Dragway was an AHRA track. It turns out that it was actually NHRA, but had been AHRA and many of the Stock-type vehicles were set up for the Formula Stock classes, so they kept these classes in effect for several years on a local basis. We’re all sitting home fantasizing about racing, so let’s fantasize about Classes and combinations that don’t exist. I that I could dig up and old rulebook, but I’m going to go by memory at this point. If this thread catches on, I can look into it further. As I recall, the Classes were based on pounds per cubic inch, starting with A at 7.00-7.49, and then going to B at 7.50 to 7.99. Let’s assume that they went up by .5 and weighed the cars with the driver (similar to the change in Modified years ago). Back then, you had to run off the factory shipping weight. Today, we’ll say that you can go to the Class minimum, but you can only run one Class, the natural class of your car. The chassis and suspension rules were similar to today’s Stockers, but limited to 4.56 gears. You could run a fiberglass hood, with a hood scoop, we’ll call it 5”. 850 cfm carburetor. Aluminum intake. No porting of the heads (let’s say what will pass in Stock these days), but you could run any head that would bolt onto the block. I don’t recall the rule back then, but let’s say no chamfering of the bores for valve clearance. Camshafts were limited to .525 lift above 375 cubic inches, and .500 below 375. Today’s hydraulics are pretty much solids anyway, so let’s scratch that Back then, hydraulics had to run hydraulic lifters and solids could run solids, no roller cams. .060 overbore and will give it the .015 on the stroke. Again, these were only the engines and sizes that came in the car, and you were classified by the original cubic inch, not what it actually measured with the overbore. Any compression ratio. There were no aftermarket rods, except maybe aluminum, so we’ll modernize it with aftermarket rods and pistons acceptable, but they must meet the stock weight. Valve reliefs acceptable. These cars were very much like the future Super Modified Classes in the original release. I think the trick was to find the biggest head that you could fit on the smallest cubic inch. I remember one pair of brothers that ran 361 Chryslers because they were feeding the smallest cubic inch B motor with Max Wedge heads. A Boss 302 Mustang was another fast car at the time. A 396 was probably a lot more popular than a 427. 283’s with 2.02 valve heads were popular. Some of the guys who ran these classes at Epping were Jim Boudreau, Vic Santos, Bill Baylis, Bob Broadbent, and Brad Rose. Tom Boucher may have had one, as well. I know that Bench Racer will chime in on this one, because his brother or brother-in-law ran the IHRA Formula Stock Classes before switching to NHRA Super Stock. Yes, this is a waste of time, but it beats discussing the virus. What would you build?