Coming Soon.....

[Dan Bennett]

Just from reading him here and watching a couple of interviews Gump seems like a pretty good guy and I admire that he thrives on challenges and breaking new ground. But there's a couple of things in my mind about this whole deal.

So a T400 may have been used in BMWs. Stating the obvious, but the Supra is not a BMW. Toyota is one corporation, BMW is another whether they sometimes share technology or not. If he was building a Z4, I'd have no issue. This is just stretching the rules (and logic) much too far. I realize that when the factory cars were being introduced a lot of crazy thinking got approved.

Second, yes AMC did start using torqueflites but it was long before they were bought out. I owned a 68 AMX with a Borg Warner (T35?) which was nothing but problems. If my memory is correct, in 69 they started using the Mopar stuff. The pain from buying a year too early is still with me. I have a knack for that - I bought a new leftover 273/235 Barracuda in the summer of 67 just weeks before the 340 was introduced.

Finally, I know the horses left the barn, but there is no way this should be in the Stock classes.

[Mark Yacavone]

Originally Posted by JP1738

Yac, I see you're point and it is a valid one. I suspect they made the rules based on what cars could potentially go instead of what they actually do. That said, those cars in middling classes like K/L/M are rarely gonna run fast enough to need a roll bar and belts (11.5 et). That'd be 1.35 under for an M car. Not impossible but not probable.

For those who came later>

Some time in the late 80's ,the roll bar rule for brackets was 11.99.
For Stockers, it was down thru J & K
Gen 3 305 cars started to get popular, the hp factors were pretty low, and some could run in the high 11's in L, M, N, etc.
Guys would show up for test and tune with no bar, by the Stock rules and the local bracket tech guys didn't know how to handle this. The bracket guys would complain because they needed a bar in the 11's.
NHRA, instead of using the ET as a guide, just jumped in and added L&M roll bars to the rule book .

Not long after, the bracket roll bar requirement went down to 11.49.
The 305's got hp added to where they could run F&G and run pretty close to, or in the 10's.
I brought up this inconsistency to Bruce, several years ago. He listened and said he would bring it up, but nothing ever happened with it.

So now we have M cars at Denver in the high 13's that require a roll bar but 11.50 bracket cars that don't.

I know we lost a few good class racers because of inconsistencies like this.
We probably lost a few beginners too. But does NHRA care,...Nah