NHRA US Nationals
- Thread starter pe2unia
- Start date
Kip Ewing
CF Vendor
Nhra
Oh man...
Do I wish I could go!
Way too much to do at the shop.
I did get hip to a movie I will have to track down this weekend, "7 second love affair".
If you dig drag racing, Google it, buy it, watch it.
You will be a better man for it.
I saw my first NHRA race when I was 5 years old.
The mother of my buddy across the street ran a pro stock Dodge.
She was running in Dallas and I went with them for the weekend.
It was a vastly different day and age when a couple of 5 year olds could wander freely around the paddock of a Top Fuel event.
I got to see John Wiebie (who later became a dear family friend) run top fuel that day, Grumpy Jenkins, Al Vanderwoude's Flying Dutchman funny car......
That day changed my life.
Oh man...
Do I wish I could go!
Way too much to do at the shop.
I did get hip to a movie I will have to track down this weekend, "7 second love affair".
If you dig drag racing, Google it, buy it, watch it.
You will be a better man for it.
I saw my first NHRA race when I was 5 years old.
The mother of my buddy across the street ran a pro stock Dodge.
She was running in Dallas and I went with them for the weekend.
It was a vastly different day and age when a couple of 5 year olds could wander freely around the paddock of a Top Fuel event.
I got to see John Wiebie (who later became a dear family friend) run top fuel that day, Grumpy Jenkins, Al Vanderwoude's Flying Dutchman funny car......
That day changed my life.
- Aug 25, 2006
- 4,436
HD DVR will be my friend
I will be there and yet from a great distance
Takes care
Shadowman
Empty Pockets
ex-GT Owner
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, the GOOD OL' DAYS!!!! "Grumpy", "Wild Willy B.", "Stone, Woods & Cook", "The Swamp Rat", "Dyno Don", "Hayden Profit", "Smother's Bro.'s Racing", "Bob Glidden", "Melrose Missile", "Sox & Martin", "The Hawaiian", "Freight Train", "Tommy Ivo", "Jungle Jim" (and Jungle PAM!!!:eek), "Linda Vaughn" (Miss Hurst Shifter:eek) - just to name a FEW! What a time to have lived thru! You younger guys have NO CLUE AT ALL what you missed! Seriously! NO darn clue at all!!!:banana:banana:banana
AJB
GT
I am not going but a good friend of mine, John GAstman is there already. He is a Dodge Dealer (Roanoke Motors). He will be there with more than likely MOPAR and VIPER owners...
If you see a group, ask for JOhn, say hello and tell him you know me .
andy benedict.
AJB
If you see a group, ask for JOhn, say hello and tell him you know me .
andy benedict.
AJB
soroush
Ford Gt Owner
- Aug 8, 2007
- 5,256
texas mongrel
GT Owner
I got an invitation to the 2008 SpringNationals in Baytown last year. We spent the day with the Checker Shucks Kragen Funny Car team, who ended up winning the Championship. I haven't been to see any drag racing since the 70s but I have to say it was an awesome day - the technology behind these machines is fascinating, and watching them rebuild engines in a few minutes is an impressive sight.
I particularly remember asking the crew chief why they chamferefed the ends of the zoomie exhausts; he replied that they didn't chamfer them but that the pipes melt on the way down the track and end up dragging along the asphalt and grinding themselves down!
Also fun to be in the winners circle with a boat-load of really leggy/busty advertising girls!
I particularly remember asking the crew chief why they chamferefed the ends of the zoomie exhausts; he replied that they didn't chamfer them but that the pipes melt on the way down the track and end up dragging along the asphalt and grinding themselves down!
Also fun to be in the winners circle with a boat-load of really leggy/busty advertising girls!
MD530F
Member
What a joke this year.
John Force lays down an intentional egg in the semi-final so that his driver, Hight, who is married to one of Force's daughters can get into the championship race. Then, in the finals, Hight gets beat by Force's other daughter Ashley Force, so that she can win the National. I am at a loss for how this all happened.
This has all the makings of a sequel to Deliverance.....
John Force lays down an intentional egg in the semi-final so that his driver, Hight, who is married to one of Force's daughters can get into the championship race. Then, in the finals, Hight gets beat by Force's other daughter Ashley Force, so that she can win the National. I am at a loss for how this all happened.
This has all the makings of a sequel to Deliverance.....
WOW!!! There was plenty of drama this year as this is the last race of the year before the chase. I have a buddy of mine who is the car chief on Bob Tasca's car so we got to hang out in there compound as if we were VIP's.:lol If any of you can stand the "no turns" thing you should try and make this event sometime as it is there Super Bowl so to speak for the NHRA. OK got to to alcohol rehab now:rofl
Empty Pockets
ex-GT Owner
Like the NHRA offical said (basically), unless there's concrete PROOF, accusations don't cut it.
Re: the final between Ashley/Hight(sp?)...John Force SAID before that race happened that he'd be "catching it" for the outcome of THAT race too (because of this and that) - no matter WHO won. And it appears he was right.:frown
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Empty Pockets
ex-GT Owner
It was more than a little spooky when Tasca's car went "boom" and turned into Fast Freddy's avatar. :willy:willy:willy:willy:willy
'Great testiment to those fire suits when we saw the puny lil' scorch on Bob's in the interview afterwards! :thumbsup
Luke Warmwater
Permanent Vacation
If you have never seen a fuel car then you have no clue what they are about. Any piston driven internal combustion engine you see or hear from that point forward will be nothing more than a 50cc moped by comparison. Taking first timers and watching them as they are seating the clutch in the pits is worth every penny of admittance 
-Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1 1/2 gallons of nitro per second, the same rate of fuel consumption as a fully loaded 747 but with 4 times the energy volume.
-The supercharger takes more power to drive then a stock hemi makes.
-Even with nearly 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into nearly solid form before ignition. Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock.
-Dual magnetos apply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder.
-At stoichiometric (exact) 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture (for nitro), the flame front of nitromethane measures 7050 degrees F.
-Nitromethane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, dissociated from atmospheric water vapor by the searing exhaust gases.
-Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After 1/2 way, the engine is dieseling from compression-plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1400 degrees F. The engine can only be shut down by cutting off its fuel flow.
-If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in those cylinders and then explodes with a force that can blow cylinder heads off the block in pieces or blow the block in half.
-Dragsters twist the crank (torsionally) so far (20 degrees in the big end of the track) that sometimes cam lobes are ground offset from front to rear to re-phase the valve timing somewhere closer to synchronization with the pistons.
-To exceed 300mph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must accelerate at an average of over 4G's. But in reaching 200 mph well before 1/2 track, launch acceleration is closer to 8G's.
-Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have read this sentence.
-Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1 1/2 gallons of nitro per second, the same rate of fuel consumption as a fully loaded 747 but with 4 times the energy volume.
-The supercharger takes more power to drive then a stock hemi makes.
-Even with nearly 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into nearly solid form before ignition. Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock.
-Dual magnetos apply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder.
-At stoichiometric (exact) 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture (for nitro), the flame front of nitromethane measures 7050 degrees F.
-Nitromethane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, dissociated from atmospheric water vapor by the searing exhaust gases.
-Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After 1/2 way, the engine is dieseling from compression-plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1400 degrees F. The engine can only be shut down by cutting off its fuel flow.
-If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in those cylinders and then explodes with a force that can blow cylinder heads off the block in pieces or blow the block in half.
-Dragsters twist the crank (torsionally) so far (20 degrees in the big end of the track) that sometimes cam lobes are ground offset from front to rear to re-phase the valve timing somewhere closer to synchronization with the pistons.
-To exceed 300mph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must accelerate at an average of over 4G's. But in reaching 200 mph well before 1/2 track, launch acceleration is closer to 8G's.
-Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have read this sentence.