Good Paul, much clarification there, I assume we're talking about NHRA
Top Alcohol here, and I was unaware of all these details. We want
lifetime learning. Interesting that unblown nitro cars do apparently
get handicapped compared with blown alcohol. So the experts have
determined that unblown nitro, inch for inch, has an advantage over
blown alcohol. But they want to encourage people to run both systems to
improve the interest of the show.
I have always been skeptical of the power figures published for those
cars and for Top Fuel, since it is probably 40+ years since it was last
practical to dyno-test them. So people extrapolate their power from
various mathematical models or computer models, or the enthusiasm of any
particular track announcer on a given day. And, there are so many known
and unknown variables about the physical situation of the car
accelerating to 300+ mph in a standing quarter mile. All anybody can
say for certain is that there is a lot of power there. The crew chiefs,
a small band of professionals, know what they are doing, and probably
don't know or care what the exact torque and power output of their
equipment is, they are focused on winning races for that is where the
prestige and money are. The extreme closeness of the competition shows
that the knowledge among them is very equal, with only a very few teams
showing a slight edge due perhaps to slightly more experience, slightly
harder work, and slightly more money.
But back to Bonneville, the year 1989, I had the privilege to stand on
the Salt and chat with Vincent Great Dave Matson, who's been running his
Vincents there more than 40 years. The occasion was an International
Rally of the Vincent Owners Club there in his honor. Dave's Vincent was
bored and stroked from the original 61 inches to 100.5, and he had
several naked and partial-streamlined records with it in the 225 - 230
mph range, running unblown nitro with Hilborn injection, 90% or more
according, as he told me, to the weather. Other famous Vincent
Bonneville record men including Marty Dickerson were present, and the
consensus of these veterans was that Dave's Vincent produced in the
neighborhood of 300 BHP to run the speeds it did. And it was fairly
reliable in that form, with a standard gearbox for example, and original
heads, barrels and cases. I thought at the time that this probably
represented a fair assessment of the machine and the performance of
unblown nitro.
One of the reasons why today's Top Fuel Hemi interests me is that it is
a direct lineal descendent of the '51 Chrysler Hemi V-8, which is turn
many believe was much influenced by the Ardun-Ford which appeared in
'47. Regards, Ardun Bill
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