At this point in the game, I think it’s time to lift performance restrictions on the blown combination. Leave the A/Fuelers alone and untie the blown car’s hands. Let the C blower come in. Maybe a bigger blower and a bigger motor is the answer? I don’t think cubic inches alone are necessarily the answer, but as you make more boost, you have to put it somewhere.
Allowing a lock-up system to be mounted to the existing clutches may help as well. It’s pretty simple to rig up an air solenoid to control throwout bearing travel, thus manually controlling when the clutch locks up. With no clutch management, you have limited options. In theory, with a manual lock-up clutch, you could get after the car more early to try to pick up e.t. in the 60-ft. time. With the current configuration you typically have to pull so much clutch off to make a low gear work, you lose most, if not more than what you gain in the short numbers on the back half. Being able to dictate clutch lock up as a function of time rather than rpm should allow the blown cars to be able to manage a lower gear to get the good short numbers and still run enough clutch weight to lock the clutch good for a strong back half. Sort of a have your cake and eat it, too, scenario.
While on the subject of early numbers, I don’t have any hard data to support this, but it stands to reason that while it’s debatable whether or not the C blower would make more boost up high than the D blower at 128 over, the C blower should make more boost at the hit. More boost at the hit would allow you to pick up the car early in the run.
Another solution is so simple, it’s often overlooked, and almost scary. Just for the sake of good even numbers, if A/Fuel runs at 96%, why not give the other 4% nitro to the blown combination? I have no idea what the magic number is. One racer I talked to said he had seen a few percent make nearly 100 hp on a blown alcohol motor dyno pull.
The point is, why continue to limit the blown combination, when they are still behind the A/Fuelers in nearly every weather situation?
Another point regarding TAD, if there is going to be a rule about not being able to artificially chill fuel, then it needs to be policed. There are quite a few teams out there that chill their fuel and don’t really hide it. Either lift the rule and let everyone do it, or enforce or clarify the rule. It’s not right for NHRA to enforce some rules and not others.
REDLIGHTS IN COMP AND SPEC BUTTONS
I don’t know what the answer is, but there are more redlights in Comp Eliminator than any other category. It definitely doesn’t help the class. Now with the proposed introduction of a spec transbrake button for the auto cars, the problem may get worse next year.
As fellow DRO columnist Jok Nicholson illustrated earlier in the year in his column, today’s adjustable transbrake buttons have become very elaborate. What started off as buttons with longer throws to slow the driver’s reactions have become complex, minutely adjustable units.
I certainly think anything that takes the driver element out of the car goes against the spirit of the class. The cars of yesteryear when the .500 full tree was adopted reacted far slower than the cars of today. Thus, we see a lot of rounds decided on redlights in Comp. I’m a firm believer that the full tree needs to remain, but I am in favor of speeding the tree to .400. Let me repeat, I am not advocating a single flash, pro tree. Rather speed the tree up. Yes, some drivers will still redlight due to either anticipating the bulb or just pushing the tree too hard. I think it will get rid of a good number of “car” redlights where the car just reacted too quickly.
RANDOM NOTES
If you’re a team owner, you don’t have much excuse for not being at the PRI Show in Orlando, Dec. 6-8. Just about every major performance company in the business is at this show, with all of the decision makers. I’m not saying it’s a “go there and get sponsored” trip, but it doesn’t hurt to meet the people that make the calls on who gets product deals and who doesn’t. It’s a great place to catch up on the latest technology and see what some of the new parts will be for next year. There’s a hell of a lot of bench racing that goes on as well. It’s a fun trip, but bring your walking shoes. The Orange County Convention Center is huge. If you were to walk up and down every row, you will walk five miles. There’s more stuff than you can see in one trip.
Well, now that you’re on the tire for the offseason, feel free to drop us your thoughts, or drop by one of my websites at www.InsideTopAlcohol.com, www.InsideCompRacing.com, or www.InsideFastBrackets.com. To get your offseason bench racing fix, look for “racer chat nights” to be announced on each site soon! See ya at PRI or next year!
will.hanna@insidetopalcohol.com
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