We need a new "instant" trigger!

[Billy Nees]

OK everybody, The -1.40 trigger is taking too long to catch up to all of the "soft" combos out there! Any suggestions? OBTW we're talking Stock and SS!

[hadtobethere]

Originally Posted by Billy Nees

OK everybody, The -1.40 trigger is taking too long to catch up to all of the "soft" combos out there! Any suggestions? OBTW we're talking Stock and SS!

get rid of the AHFS...nobody can define it, including NHRA and it does not work. Use real data, with real people, it is not hard.

Then use realistic HP factors when 'new' cars or combos appear......

[Dick Butler]

Yes!

[Billy Nees]

Wow! 3 views and 2 responses in 10 minutes! No, we're not reinventing the wheel, just need to change the instant trigger.

[X-TECH MAN]

With todays rules and whats allowed Id say take .5 (1/2) seconds off ALL of the indexes to start with. Then anyone who runs more than .75 inder gets hit with a realistic percentage. (you come up with an amount). But a car with 186 HP will get hit far less than say one with 425 HP if they both go under the same amount. Kind of sucks dosent it !

[Billy Nees]

OK, let's hit the indexes .5! Great, that's out of the way now, AHFS trigger goes to .65 under and instant trigger goes to .90 under. Now how do we change the instant trigger? Come on guys get off of your hands!

[Yo Ken]

Billy,

Views are updated every hour, Be patient, I'm sure many are interested in this thread.

[Mike Carr]

I had posted something similar to this in the Top Stock forum, but I will repeat it. How does one tell if a car has a fair factor on it or not? Obviously people like Billy Nees, Bob Shaw, Mark Yacavone, etc can tell if a combo has great, so-so, or poor potential. The average racer probably doesn't, in regards to the oddball combinations. I don't have the stats on Bob's Cadillac, but I will use his previous car. L/FIA (then, it's now V/SA) '85 Caprice 262/130 factory, NHRA 155. Until someone builds one, who knows if it would run two seconds under, or only .75-.80 under. Fair factoring is a must, but I don't believe a racer should be penalized for choosing to run a rare/odd/whatever you want to call it combination until the HP penalty is warrented. Not everyone wants to build/buy/race a 302 Mustang, 305 Camaro, late model EFI GM F-body, 396/375 Camaro, etc. Last year, my mother bought a 2000 Monte Carlo. 231 cid, 200 factory, 200 NHRA. One of the above racers may build one for BF/S (14.95 Index). It may run 14.20 or 13.20. How would anyone know if 200 is fair, soft, or hard?

I do agree the AHFS, in it's current state, will never work, and/or take many years to sort out a severely under-rated combination. Here's another problem. Some of us would (maybe) like to see the -1.40 and -1.15 triggers lowered, maybe to, say, -1.25 for automatic HP and -1.00 for the trigger to be evaluated. This would speed the process up of factoring soft combinations.. But, the racers that like to go fast in class, or try and qualify #1 will likely not want these triggers. Plus some combinations that are correctly factored (not soft) will get hit with more HP. If we leave them alone, as I mentioned, it will take quite a while to factor certain combinations, especially if the driver(s) are smart about it. Same things if we were to lower the Indexes, as some have wanted, and left the triggers alone. And, if they were to lower the Indexes AND the triggers, you would have changed nothing, and just made it tougher for some lower-buck racers to qualify and/or run the Index. Lots of issues, and unfortunately, I don't have the answers to make it better, let alone perfect.

[Billy Nees]

It's funny that you would bring that combo up Mike seeing as I asked to have it put in the guide. Jim Skelly wouldn't even consider putting it in the guide at it's rated HP (130) and we finally agreed to 150 (since factored to 155) and it's still a killer. It just proves my point about NHRA's new policy of putting combos in the guide at their factory rated HP. Now back to the question, what is a fair instant hit?

[Mike Carr]

-1.40 for the automatic hit *may* be OK, I don't know. If you were to lower it to, say, -1.25, and they ran Class at a race with really good air, there could be many combinations receive HP on Monday...some of which that really didn't deserve it. Or, I should say, were not severely underfactored. So you would have those racers complaining. If you leave it at -1.40, then it could take a while for a soft combination to get hit enough to be in line with the others in his/her class, unless the driver messes up. I think you wrote in another thread that Bob Shaw would need to get hit three or four more times to really make it fair on the rest. Some would say that would take too long. So no matter what the trigger, many racers will not be happy. I guess if it were up to me, I wouldn't change it too much. Maybe -1.30?