Crate Engines in NHRA?

[Dwight Southerland]

Originally Posted by Alan Roehrich

I don't understand doing it at all. It's not like you can go buy a crate motor from the dealer, bolt it in, and be competitive. It's just as expensive to either build one yourself, or pay someone to build it for you, if you want one that is competitive, as it is to build a competitive real combination.

And to be blunt, I hope NHRA never accepts any of them, the new bogus paper crate motor factory cars are enough of a joke, we don't really need anymore laughs.

Yeah, but so many of the current old "stock" combinations are nothing more than paper motors any more. When your 396s got the 401 heads, the 359 manifolds, pistons that do not resemble production pieces, aftermarket carbs, 7/16" pushrods, etc. etc. the "stock" goes away. And that is just one example. The Delusion that Stockers are production pure pieces is just that. They are mostly formula cars now. Why not include additional optional definitions that can be controlled just as easy in teardown, yet are built with easy to obtain parts? Just a different formula in my mind, and easier to control. It's hard for somebody to come up with bogus 40 year-old documentation to change the facts of a production engine just to gain an advantage when the definition is clear to begin with and its not dragged out of somebody's wet dream from their teenage years.