How the factory "Package" cars may save Stock

[Chris "drooze" Wertman]

Ok, dont get riled because I dont know jack...

But Ive read all the reasons of doom and gloom for an arena Im just starting to race in....to me, an outsider, and a business owner....heres how I see "the bright" side of things.....

So.....I just want to share it, I have heard from others they feel the same, but havent read (much) of that here.

I am going to offend some, because I "dont know" what I am talking about. BUT What I am is a) Younger than most here b)may have a fresh (naieve) perspective c) am bored outta my mind sitting here in this damm room.

Ok Challengers and their Ford Counterpart have been illed as the "doom" of stock eliminator.

But heres how I see it .....corp interest == Money, Money=Promotion, Promotion=Fans, Fans=Money and round and round....greed drives companys and orginizations for the most part simple, the question is how to benefit from their greed and participate

Newer cars = newer / younger fans
Newer technology = more vendor development, more interest and sales for the vendors of the newer technologies.
Newer technology draws new builders and tuners who are more familiar with the newer packges.
More Vendor development = New racing tech , bigger "edges"
The cycles could go on.

Someone mentioned how the 428 was last made in 70, do you think a 30 year old can relate or cares ? To me its like a flathead ford, cool and all but not my first choice for a rod, and I cant apply squat to my daily driver anymore.

So, the options to attract new racers are to "hope" that younger people find something in the classification guides that is interesting to them in an antique sort of way, or something "newer" that slipped in underrated and unexploited.

How many stockers that "disagree" with this own/drive cars they were at least 14 when the car was built ? Why then look to your birthdate, predate that by say 10 years and look at the cars, can you say WOW Id love to race any/all of them against what I am running.....no......dosent make sense....in some cases that PREWAR stuff or damm early postwar.b It dosent make sense to you, why should it make sense to the younger set ?

Combos SB , BB, FE and On have been wrung out to death and back, there , now MOST are out of production....what and how much NEW can the vendors possibly do for them ? How many "new' revisions of a Powerglide can be profitable for them ? I suppose a few.....but then what ? The next logical step in a timeline would be all the "failed" engine designs of the mid 80-90's all small displacment 4 and 6 cylinders....wo, exciting.

So....let see we get Ford and Mopar sinking money in programs, maybe GM will or wont follow...but then we get vendors promoting all kinds of things for them, pushing the NHRA for more prime time for them....on and on....you have big guns coming INTO stock for the first time in years.....Garlits outta retirment, Coughnlin running again, Maybe Johnson running...and there are quite a few more on the list not public who are / were monster racers...so the exposure goes up....

I dont like Force, its something I saw him do once, but thats neither here nor there, he is a publicity hound. If Stock got enough exposure hell I bet hed consider it....not saying he will....but why is Coughlin in Stock again ? (lot of things Ive heard)

Stock with MORE factory participation could explode again, and GO somewhere....."those Funny cars".....hmmmm....

When I say stock is becoming a "Vintage" class, look at the year breakdown and percentages of cars by year...the 80's and 90's except a few odds are a detriot wasteland....so go back to the 60's-70's where most younger guys cant relate, or move forward.

The Challenger the one everyone buys with a tune and a CAI, and NOTHING more is a mid 12 second car 5.7 or 6.1....in Stock legal trim who knows, the VVT has even more potential....out of the box at 25 mpg, Mustangs well Im not familiar so I cant comment, but Im gonna guess I can go plunk 30k down and walk outta the dealer with just as minimal work can be maybe even faster.

Maybe its my deranged mind, Im thrilled to be coming into Stock Eliminator at this point....I think its cool, I have absolutley no interest in running a 1988 Cutlass Ciera, or 92 Lumina, cars from when I was in High School...so what are my options ? Run something legally classified as an "Antique" or something new...?

Guys complain about turbos, they complain about fuel injection, they are going to really compalin about variable valve timing, direct injection is going to give everyone a stroke, and on....cars are moving forward, FAST. The things of even 5 years ago are going POOF in a static sense, cars are moving forward in leaps of advancement they havent since the late 30's then later in the mid-late 50's the rest was just more of the same (from a mechanical standpoint)

I think with , Factory, Vendor, Racer, and Fan "interest" IF it can be mustered Stock may not be the same as it has been forever but something good and new will come out of it, if it dosent it will fail and disolve, they dont want to let that happen IF there is an oppotunity to be had.

If the NHRA was "SMART" they would PLAN its evolution to repeat past success of the 60's , take something that worked once and DUPLICATE the events surrounding it..

Just some bored thoughts , I think this is COOL, and Im happy to be coming in to it at this point.

[Chad Rhodes]

great grand and wonderful if you can afford a new factory hot rod. I still say they are the ruination of Stock and SS

[RULER]

The new cars are great if you have about 100k doing nothing, but the poor SOB with all his money tied up in an older car just took a big hit to the wallet and it doesn't matter how hard he works or how much money he spends he will never compete against those new cars because they are grossly under rated, And that is a fact!!!!!

[John Kelley]

$100,000 + CARS ARE GOING TO "SAVE" STOCK ?
He's joking ........right ???

[Chris "drooze" Wertman]

I do 100% understand, the same thing happened to ME in bikes....and well .... the Vintage classes were created and it was actually more fun and I became more competitive again, I couldnt compete even with a 78-9 "Works" bike factory racer with the new iron....not after the late 90's no way suspensions were way too advanced, then they started "nixing" the 2 strokes in the late 80's early 90's from RR anyway.

Youre right it "hurts the wallet" , and more...its an admission to ones self WE are getting old, not to mention the sweat equity and all the other "love" but face it, some things time gas come...my TZ250's time came....my RZ350's time came...(actually still a screamer but banned across many fields now, and kinda a death trap because of power to suspension)

Ok....but you dont NEED a "Package" car, maybe a DIFFERENT car than you currently have but not 100k either, a 15k 2006 up say SRT8 car, or some of the reasonably priced dime a dozen Fords and Chevy's have mega potential. Hell were thinking of fielding an "street" SRT8 car we have that can be "Stock Elim" spec for under 10k thats straight rear, new brakes, new rubber/wheels, and a cage and connectors, should run in the mid 10's with only a cam change headers and some FI work. Hell its stock internals now and its close, and heavy... Im only familiar with the newer Dodges so I cant comment on other "flavors" but there HAVE to be competitive cars across GM and Ford.

And heres kinda the point I was trying to make, but NEVER got there...
Are the new cars underated....YES..
Is there MORE potential YES....how much can you do to a SBC ? Ok a lot but what NEW can you do ? Not much. Noone has even explored some of the new engines....so even when their rating gets up its far from the end of the road for them, instead more and more will be pulled, and for a longer period of time, starting NOW....Like VVT....thats gonna be FUN.....same with Direct Injection, hell some of the GM's are running it "staged" with Normal injectors....I mean how much potential with a long duration cam ? wow....

You dont NEED a Package car....but something that can benefit from the vendor development that will be seen in that direction, and not a 100k piece, a 20k piece...that has loads of underfactor to begin with but more long term (long term from now forward) potential than a package thats been wrung out for 40 years !

How many other types of racing even have cars 20 years old that are still competitive ?

Adapt and survive, or stagnate and die.....seems simple to me. As much as I tried to resist it in bikes it came and went without a blink....but I survived and prospered because of it. The last 3 years in bikes I was doing exclusivley vintage GP and Formula engines....(formula bike) I was making a killing, its still my "backup" plan for money...lol...but I think the NEW stuff will pan out better, Im getting calls like crazy from everywhere, my answer for now is wait until after Gainesville and lets SEE where we are...you may not want me buidling your lawnmower, but if some of these items wring out like we think (even 1/2 of what we think) Im set......

Not from other Drag racers...from street fighters, from bracket bombers who want to drive their car...but their interest will pay for mine like it always has if I can carve a niche, that niche is in the newer stuff as I see it.....

Originally Posted by RULER

The new cars are great if you have about 100k doing nothing, but the poor SOB with all his money tied up in an older car just took a big hit to the wallet and it doesn't matter how hard he works or how much money he spends he will never compete against those new cars because they are grossly under rated, And that is a fact!!!!!

[scott helms]

drooze, are you the wrench ,driver or P.R.guy, or "D" all the above just curious?

[greg johnson]

I've kept my mouth shut long enough..................
"save" stock??................. Please! Doubt it!!

Yanno, it's not for me to say how someone should spend their $$ for entertaining themselves............. that's their Choice & to each their own!!

BUT, ... my ONLY peeve is that NOT ONE of these new "package" rides have, or even COULD be driven home from the showroom floor!!!!!! Why, at least the "paper cars" of the not too distant past could have been driven to the grocery store to buy some milk for momma!!!!!!!! How then can these cars be "categorized" as STOCK?? In MY mind, "stock" will ALWAYS mean "something you could go down to the neighborhood dealership, plop down some cash, (earned or inherited, WHO CARES!?!?) & drive home a vehicle you might be racing next week".

Granted, it undoubtedly will do the sport "good medicine" to get new blood, more cars, etc to show up. Even to get some current pro's, ex-pro's, ex-champs back into the action will be a definite PLUS. Once ya get paired up, I really don't care "WHO" is in the other lane, BUT, if "Big" does beat me.......................... at least it'll be a race I'll probably remember.
OK, I am done.............. Thanks fer listening!!
See some of ya in the spring................. Hopefully!!

[RULER]

Ding ding ding we have a winner, your right these cars are no different than the 68 hemi cars that went straight to super stock, and also they have a list of engines you can pick from that were never offered in any over the show room car, it's called crate motor over in ihra land, get the hp closer and sell them as street cars then race in stock!!

[X-TECH MAN]

This "DRIZZEL" guy MUST be on drugs or smoking something.

[Billy Nees]

Drooze, I have no problem with new cars coming into the eliminator. Will they "save" the eliminator? No, and it doesn't need to be saved. Will they "help" the eliminator? That depends on how long the factories will bankroll them and how long the "celebs" will hang around. Can they "hurt" the eliminator? Definitely. How? IMHO whenever somebody dumps big money into a sport it "raises the bar" for all concerned (you can't argue with that). Most competitors will "ante up" and continue, some will leave and some that may want to play are now locked out. That is part of life it happens every day. So what is the problem? When the big money somebody gets their budget cut or redirected or just plain decides to "buy a boat" then they are gone faster then they came. Now they've increased the price of participating for eveyone else concerned, chased some away and retired some and they're gone. Let's add to the fact they've also left a hand full (in the grand scheme) of "mongrel" (neat but mongrel) cars that will probably need special attention from tech (special exceptions, superceded stuff) over time to keep them running.
Again, I haveno problem with new cars but these aren't STOCK cars. Period.