Enough Covid Bull$hit

[Greg Gay]

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?

[Stan Weiss]

Why 4.56:1 limit?

Most for those combinations you stated will want to turn some high RPM.

What are the tire and trans rules?

Stan

[Greg Gay]

I don't know the purpose of the 4.56 gears, but the more that I think about it, I think I described what they called the Junior Stock Classes. As to the transmission rules, they had separate manual and automatic classes, and I THINK you had to run the transmission that the car came with. Of course with our modern version, you'd probably get 4 speed manuals and 3 speed automatics, too. I remember one guy, Jean Plouffe, won the points championship with a 66 Chevelle, 327 and 3 speed manual transmission.

The 4.56 gear rule might have inadvertently closed the advantage of the small cubic inch engines as the larger engines might have been able to take advantage of their torque, leveling the playing field somewhat, and also kept the combinations more mild. Perhaps they thought that 4.56 was about all that you could reasonably drive on the street? I'm just guessing.

There was also a Top Stock class, which may be more like the Formula Stock classes. I BELIEVE about the only difference was unlimited camshaft, though I don't even know if roller cams existed then, and no gear rule. There were also 3 levels of Classes in Top Stock A "1" designated multipIe carburetion. A "2" was for 3 and 4 barrel carburetion, and a "3" was 1 and 2 barrel carbs. I know that there is a rule book or two in my parents' cellar, but they are in their 80's and quarantined, so I haven't been in their house in about 5 weeks.

[Stan Weiss]

Originally Posted by Greg Gay

I don't know the purpose of the 4.56 gears, but the more that I think about it, I think I described what they called the Junior Stock Classes. As to the transmission rules, they had separate manual and automatic classes, and I THINK you had to run the transmission that the car came with. Of course with our modern version, you'd probably get 4 speed manuals and 3 speed automatics, too. I remember one guy, Jean Plouffe, won the points championship with a 66 Chevelle, 327 and 3 speed manual transmission.

The 4.56 gear rule might have inadvertently closed the advantage of the small cubic inch engines as the larger engines might have been able to take advantage of their torque, leveling the playing field somewhat, and also kept the combinations more mild. Perhaps they thought that 4.56 was about all that you could reasonably drive on the street? I'm just guessing.

There was also a Top Stock class, which may be more like the Formula Stock classes. I BELIEVE about the only difference was unlimited camshaft, though I don't even know if roller cams existed then, and no gear rule. There were also 3 levels of Classes in Top Stock A "1" designated multipIe carburetion. A "2" was for 3 and 4 barrel carburetion, and a "3" was 1 and 2 barrel carbs. I know that there is a rule book or two in my parents' cellar, but they are in their 80's and quarantined, so I haven't been in their house in about 5 weeks.

I do not know when then is. I also do not know when the first roller cam was made. I can say the in the mid '60s I ran an Engle roller cam. And if anyone thinks that tight lash is something modern it had 0.012" I and 0.014" E lash.


Stan

[Dan Fahey]

Originally Posted by Stan Weiss

I do not know when then is. I also do not know when the first roller cam was made. I can say the in the mid '60s I ran an Engle roller cam. And if anyone thinks that tight lash is something modern it had 0.012" I and 0.014" E lash.


Stan

I do know that the Allison 1710 V12 engine was designed in 1935 as single OHC engine with Roller Rockers..so that would make it a Roller Cam Engine.

[Mark Yacavone]

Museum in Death Valley..Year? ...Old!

[Stan Weiss]

Mark,
Interesting setup. One roller diameter looks like twice the diameter of the other. Any idea who the manufacture was?



Stan

[Mark Yacavone]

Originally Posted by Stan Weiss

Mark,
Interesting setup. One roller diameter looks like twice the diameter of the other. Any idea who the manufacture was?



Stan

Only what I can read here..

[Mike Taylor 3601]

Originally Posted by Dan Fahey

I do know that the Allison 1710 V12 engine was designed in 1935 as single OHC engine with Roller Rockers..so that would make it a Roller Cam Engine.

I built a 1928 Buick engine.... the engine was identified as standard...
it had roller lifters... there was something else about it that was ''ahead of it's time'' can't remember what at moment...
was it Herbert or Isky had first roller cams for small block chevrolet

[Dan Fahey]

Originally Posted by Mike Taylor 3601

I built a 1928 Buick engine.... the engine was identified as standard...
it had roller lifters... there was something else about it that was ''ahead of it's time'' can't remember what at moment...
was it Herbert or Isky had first roller cams for small block chevrolet

Found this on Warbirds Online