I think also your reasoning also reflects on NASCAR’s slowing the cars for
safety came to be. GM big blocks weren’t competitive in power or longevity,
whereas the small block Chevy, oops, I mean corporate motor is king of the hill.
The adage of ‘Win on Sunday, sell on Monday” is still alive, just not
publicized. Dodge didn’t drop sponsorship due to costs; they knew their chances
of winning were stacked against them. Big money has hurt all competitive events
to the point that the little guy’s chances are at best highly unlikely. My $.02
worth...............
From: Steve Charette
Sent: Saturday, June 07, 2014 6:33 PM
Subject: Re: No Max Wedge & Race Hemi Nat'l Record
Holders!? The reason for this is one word: Factoring.
-- If you had the opportunity to attend any of the old Direct Connection
Racing Seminars, you would have been treated to a detailed discussion of how the
Mopar combinations (both factory race cars and the less exotic combinations as
well) were constantly being factored to the point that the cars were seldom
competitive. One year ('77?) there was a (Mopar) racer whose combination
was factored 4 times in one season, each time moving the car up a class - he
went from like K or L/SA to I/SA in a matter of months.
If you have an old Direct Connection Racing Manual (The single volume
versions, the blue and yellow ones for sure, and maybe the multi-colored
versions), find the pages entitled "Racing Your Mopar", or something like
that... you will find a treatise on various factoring scenarios that rendered
one combination or another un-competitive. While the information in and of
itself told a story, it was always out-of-date by the time the ink was
dry. Some specific examples that I recall were how 440's were factored
against 455 Pontiacs, IIRC (forgive me if the details aren't exact but you'll
get the general drift) the 455 had larger valves, a better intake, more
compression, that sort of thing but was factored below it's factory HP rating,
while the 440 was factored above it's factory HP rating. One could almost excuse
this, but to then see engines factored two or three times, just to the point
that the cars moved up a class, again and again until they could no longer touch
the record, one had to take notice.
Even the venerable SS Barracudas and Darts were swiftly shown the door
(here's your own back yard to play in, SS/AH) so that some of the smaller kids
could be the "Fastest Super Stockers". And now they've gotten into the
alphabet soup thing trying to accommodate all the new iron, SS/AAA, SS A/A,
SS/BB, all I can do is shake my head and think to myself, WTF/O?
And the reason for all of this? The sales figures were conclusive -
more drivers bought GM and Ford products (Chrysler marques trailed behind) and
the sanctioning bodies knew that to put "butts in the seats" on race days, that
the GM and Ford products had to win. Certain classes were tough to fudge -
in the A-D Stock and Super Stock classes the Mopars were so much faster than the
competition it that there weren't cars that could even make the class... I don't
speak foreign languages well, but there were Camaros and Chevelles with LS-6 (?)
and LS-7 (?) stuff, aluminum heads, high horsepower stuff all factored down to
classes where they could beat garden variety 440 cars. And so it went down
through the classes - 340's forced to run against big Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles,
318's running 327's and 351's, the list went on. It was kinda cool to see
Super Stock AMC's (before they were part of the family) taking care of business
in SS/C. Eventually, however, the classes were diluted with specialized
versions of off-brand something-or-anothers until as Don found earlier, the
classes once owned by Mopars are now populated by cars that people can go to the
dealer and buy. I stopped keeping track 10 or so years ago, but can't
understand how 50 year old Wedge cars are supposed to compete against new fuel
injected stuff. John Calvert holds today's A/SA mark with a 9.79 record - I
recall seeing some Max-Wedge Super Stockers running close - for Pete's
sake why aren't the FI cars in a separate class?
A fast check just now revealed that D, E, and F/SA are all held buy Mopars
just in the last 3 weeks. Watch those classes closely the next few months and
see what happens.
Anyway, I think most of the old factory race cars have either been restored
and tucked away or are tearing up the asphalt in NSS. No point beating
your head against the wall when you have to run a pair of 50 year old AFB's and
dual point distributors against something with computerized ignition and
multi-point fuel injection.
And that, boys and girls, is why I'd walk barefoot a mile over broken glass
and barbed wire to watch NSS even if the NHRA was holding a national event in my
front yard.
SC
On Thursday, June 5, 2014 6:23:59 PM UTC-4, Donald Gallimore wrote:
-- -- Please address private email -- email of interest to only one person -- directly to that person. That is, email your parts/car transactions and negotiations, as well as other personal messages, only to the intended recipient. Do not just press "reply" and send your email to everyone using the general '62-'65 Clubhouse public email address. This practice will protect your privacy, reduce the total volume of mail and fine-tune the content signal to Mopar topic. Thanks! 1962 to 1965 Mopar Clubhouse Discussion Guidelines: http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.org/mletiq.html and http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.com/general_disclaimer.html. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The 1962 to 1965 Mopar Mail List Clubhouse" group. http://groups.google.com/group/1962to1965mopars?hl=en. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The 1962 to 1965 Mopar Mail List Clubhouse" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to 1962to1965mopars+unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
-- -- -- Please address private email -- email of interest to only one person -- directly to that person. That is, email your parts/car transactions and negotiations, as well as other personal messages, only to the intended recipient. Do not just press "reply" and send your email to everyone using the general '62-'65 Clubhouse public email address. This practice will protect your privacy, reduce the total volume of mail and fine-tune the content signal to Mopar topic. Thanks! 1962 to 1965 Mopar Clubhouse Discussion Guidelines: http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.org/mletiq.html and http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.com/general_disclaimer.html. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The 1962 to 1965 Mopar Mail List Clubhouse" group. http://groups.google.com/group/1962to1965mopars?hl=en. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The 1962 to 1965 Mopar Mail List Clubhouse" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to 1962to1965mopars+unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. |