Crate Engines in NHRA?

[Alan Roehrich]

Terry, look again. There aren't that many Shelby (letter from Carrol himself combination) cars, and really, there are only a few questionable Chrysler cars, in the upper classes. There were, and are, plenty of fast Fords and Chryslers that are legitimate combinations, in the upper classes. Now, yes, there are replacement heads, intakes, and carburetors on the big block Chevy cars. I the case of the replacement heads, they add 10HP to your combination for just mentioning 401 heads. The 359 intake is better than some of the ragged service replacement 163 intakes, but not much, if any, better than a good early 163 or 198. The carburetors in Stock are all reworked anyway, the QuickFuel just has the adjust-ability out in the open. And to be honest, there were, and are, several fast upper class Chevy cars that don't have any of the replacement parts on them, and even if some of them do now, they were fast before they did.

But before the advent of the factory race cars, and the factory crate motor cars, that was really the extent of it, and it wasn't too bad.

So I don't think your statement that "if it wasn't available from the factory it can't be run in Stock" were true, it would eliminate most of the upper class cars is valid.

The stick cars would be hurt worst if they were to make everyone go back to as installed transmissions and rear ends, a lot of the automatic cars would barely slow down. Yeah, we'd al slow down if they made us go back to ferrous lifters, and stock spec valvesprings.

I'll agree with you, the loosening of the rules has been a bad thing. In both classes.