Racing for Pinks!!!!! (reynolds style)

[Alan Roehrich]

Originally Posted by art leong

I'm just saying that factory avalible is a very very long stretch.
Comparing most of today's stock eliminator cars to assembly line cars. Is attempting to compare apples to horse turds. My last car was a real stocker I could go to a junkyard or dealer and buy everypart on it. Except for the slicks.
I agree thew HP factors of the new cars is off quite a bit. But it isn't the first time, I remember the 455 Superduty Pontiac That I think was just over 300 horsepower, And that was when there was go fast racing.

Art, just as an example, we have an engine with two "replacement" items, which, it turns out, are not a huge advantage on a 427/425 car. The 401 heads, that we take a 10HP hit on, and the 359 intake, many of which don't show a real improvement over the old GM 163 intake, probably because the 359 intake is an almost direct copy of the 163. We may even run an iron head 427 next year, with the 163 intake.

The factory cars are a lot more "enhanced", and have a way soft factor.

[Alan Roehrich]

By the way, congratulations to Jeff Teuton, he won the race, with a killer 0.003 light. We blew the tires right off the car at the hit. Track prep yesterday was, sadly, very inconsistent, many races were decided by a very poor starting line. When M/SA wagons are blowing the tires off at the hit, there's a problem. Considering we had Jay Hullinger down to run the race, I was both surprised and disappointed. I sure wish he'd brought Redman with him.

Our new director was very conspicuous in his absence. Word is he was seen up near the tower, and around "high dollar" pits, Alcohol, Comp, and Top Sportsman. Given he had Bret Kepner's hearty endorsement, I expected him to at least make an appearance or two in the staging lanes to meet people and shake hands. I was very disappointed. Hey, I'm nobody, but I didn't hear of him greeting any class racers in the lanes.

We had a great time with Jeff, before and after the race. We tried to put that orange Camaro in his trailer, but the ramp kept closing before we could get the car on it. Must be a Mopar thing. We were going to put it in Kevin Helms' trailer, but for some reason, you can't get a 69 Camaro in Kevin's trailer if it doesn't have a clutch pedal. Go figure. So we shook hands and took our junk back to Tennessee.

[Mike Pearson]

Alan,

We are thinking alike on the new division director. I would have thought his first order of buisness would be to meet some of the racers. The race did run smooth but the starting line was lousy for me on saturday. My transmission broke first round on the starting line. I was first out right after the top sportsman cars. I saw the tire marks from the car in front of me and I thought to myself I am in trouble.

On a positive note. The track was open for parking all night long. The Silver Dollar crew is some of the most racer friendly of any track that we run. I enjoy going there just for that reason.

[art leong]

Originally Posted by Alan Roehrich

Art, just as an example, we have an engine with two "replacement" items, which, it turns out, are not a huge advantage on a 427/425 car. The 401 heads, that we take a 10HP hit on, and the 359 intake, many of which don't show a real improvement over the old GM 163 intake, probably because the 359 intake is an almost direct copy of the 163. We may even run an iron head 427 next year, with the 163 intake.

The factory cars are a lot more "enhanced", and have a way soft factor.

I thought all 427 Camaros came with iron heads? I thought the aluminum head was only available on the 396?

[Alan Roehrich]

Originally Posted by art leong

I thought all 427 Camaros came with iron heads? I thought the aluminum head was only available on the 396?

Art, like I said, it's a "replacement" part. That's why it carries a 10HP penalty.

[art leong]

Well all sarcasm aside. I don't see any problem with the new cars running (I do think they deserve a bit of horsepower, how much I'm not sure).
Back in the sixties and seventies, when most of the fast stockers were made there was little government intrusion (just a little smog stuff).
Now, it is a whole different story. The C.A.F.E standards would make it all but impossible to allow any of the Drag Pack cars on the street. Do you realize how many Caliber's they have to sell so they can sell one SRT8 Challenger?
The forced air Mustangs might be a different story. I think you can get pretty good mileage as long as you aren't on the throttle
Back in the early years you had to know somebody to get a real high performance car (I'm talking Mopar here). Now all you have to do is pay for them. They will sell one to anybody that wants one.

[Woodro Josey]

Alan, that was a question i was going to ask, but looks like you answered it before i ask,,,Did any sportsman racers meet the new Director and i am not talking about Alky guys, i am sure they did?

[Alan Roehrich]

Originally Posted by art leong

Well all sarcasm aside. I don't see any problem with the new cars running (I do think they deserve a bit of horsepower, how much I'm not sure).
Back in the sixties and seventies, when most of the fast stockers were made there was little government intrusion (just a little smog stuff).
Now, it is a whole different story. The C.A.F.E standards would make it all but impossible to allow any of the Drag Pack cars on the street. Do you realize how many Caliber's they have to sell so they can sell one SRT8 Challenger?
The forced air Mustangs might be a different story. I think you can get pretty good mileage as long as you aren't on the throttle
Back in the early years you had to know somebody to get a real high performance car (I'm talking Mopar here). Now all you have to do is pay for them. They will sell one to anybody that wants one.

Art, all they have to do, and it has been proposed, is have NHRA create an "allowance" in the shipping weight for all of the safety and emissions equipment for the newer performance cars. There are a ton of performance engines in regular production cars sold to the general public for street use. They don't have to create bogus combinations with BS HP factors. Simply take around 15% or so off the shipping weight of the new cars. Maybe 20%, that would get a 3800 pound Challenger or Camaro or Mustang down to 3040 pounds for crying out loud. Add a factory rated real production 400 plus HP engine and you have an upper class stocker that has plenty of potential and is in keeping with the original intent and spirit of Stock Eliminator. That's a 400 plus HP engine and a shipping weight of 3210 pounds including driver, sounds like a competitive A/S or A/SA car to me.

The idea that the OEM's cannot produce a normally aspirated performance engine that meets emissions and fuel consumptions standards is completely false. GM has been producing 400HP plus rated 346 cubic inch production street engines for around a decade. Those are engines that meet emissions and fuel consumption standards and make over 1HP per cubic inch doing it.

And it isn't the fault of anyone but the OEM's that they're too stupid to build performance cars that don't weigh 4000 pounds and don't have at least 1000 pounds of over priced unnecessary options they force on buyers. If you can build a $12K Cobalt with nothing but an AM/FM CD player and AC, they can build a $20K 3200 pound Camaro with the same damned equipment. All any of the OEM's have to do is want to.

[Alan Roehrich]

Originally Posted by Woodro Josey

Alan, that was a question i was going to ask, but looks like you answered it before i ask,,,Did any sportsman racers meet the new Director and i am not talking about Alky guys, i am sure they did?

Woodro, Kevin was in a friend's pit up near the tower. Kevin introduced himself to the new guy, and the guy never even asked him what he raced.

[Woodro Josey]

Well, thats not a very good sign but it's sorta what i expected!