We're Evolving!

[Tony Curcio]

There are aspects of motorsports evolution that are beyond the control of the sanctioning bodies, but should not be ignored. For example:

1) Today's 20 year old tech school student is learning on DOHC four and six cylinder engines, with electronic engine management, dual stage injectors, direct port injection (coming soon), variable cam timing, and of course, turbo and superchargers.
Comp eliminator has already begun to embrace the newer designs. Dave Ring's altered has a Chevy Eco-Tec style 4 cyl, the Aragona's have been using DOHC Mopar/Mitsubishi type engines for a few years, and I hear Toyota engines will debut with at least one D-1 team in 2010. The days of the F/ED with a Pontiac block and a splayed valve Chevy head appear to be numbered.

2) The small block Chevy will go the way of the flathead Ford. Overhead valve V8's were in mass-produced cars by around 1949, and the last NHRA national event won by a flathead was 1963. Land speed racing still has a handful of diehard flathead racers, but they are the exception. The SBC will endure a bit longer thanks to bracket racing, but the writing is clearly on the wall.
Already the LS-1 is widely accepted for hot rods and other projects that don't dictate the type of engine to be used. Scarcity and expense will phase out the SBC more and more. The SBC was the most common- other brands will diminish sooner. Who races an authentic Hemi Cuda anymore? How many Ford 427 wedges use original heads? How many 427 wedges period? 428's? 413's?

3) Used cars with carburetors are no longer on the street, and they are becoming expensive. If I had not already had a 69 Camaro that was in the garage for decades, I certainly wouldn't have paid for a first generation Camaro body for a stocker project. A '93 Camaro or Mustang body can be bought for under $1000, maybe even with a rebuildable engine in it. Of course, ten years from now, 2003 models will be dirt cheap. Time marches on.


Adding all varieties of late model cars to the existing framework of rules would seem to be a tech-inspection nightmare. For now, S/SS has more participation than most other non-professional motorsports categories, so its short term survival is assured. But if you're serious about remaining viable as something other than a nostalgia series for more than another 5 years or so, it might pay to look at how another form of racing is doing it.

The SCCA has a category called Touring, which is very similar to Stock Elim. While far from perfect, they have decent participation, in spite of not offering any prize money (winner gets a new set of tires from Hoosier). The T-1 class has the modern supercars- Ferrari, Viper, Corvette. By its nature, road racing has to be heads up, so they use factoring by means of added weight for the super-light Ferrari, bigger brakes for others, or in the case of the C5 Corvette, aftermarket headers (the other cars must use factory exhaust manifolds).
The T-2 class successfully combines BMW's and Camaros with Saturn Vue (ie real-world hot rods). It goes down the line with T-3 to ordinary sedans from Honda, VW and Toyota..

They have the same arguments about factoring and fairness that NHRA has. Meaningful tech enforcement is just as challenging. It's just that they have found a way to include new and old, fast and slow, expensive and cheap, and yet there are fewer classes overall.