Our recent Nitro event was an NFC event. Trap speed in the 1/4 for many of them was in the 250mph range. I was at the top end of the track for several of the runs. Most of the time I was watching thru the camera but on one pass I watched as a fan. Was watching them move around quite a bit. This image was taken during the final round. Notice the escape "hatch" lifting...
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Memory is very fuzzy...but back when the T/F cars were still running the 1/4 didn't the NHRA do a few things in an attempt to slow them down some? Think one of them was a certain gear ratio had to be used. Pretty sure I remember reading somewhere that the NHRA was also concerned about insurance companies starting to get concerned...
Last year when the 10.5/275r cars were at SCR we also had one of the NHRA Division 6 higher ups at the track. Got to talking with him and asked why they raced an 1/8th mile...he told me that for one the drivers prefer it as it is easier on the equipment. He said from the NHRA side of it the 1/8th mile is for safety sake. These guys are putting out truck loads of power. One of the SBC guys, his 60' time is 1 second flat. Supposedly the most powerful SBC in the country. Another racer had a mountain motor, believe it was in the 900" range....and if I remember right he had 4, might have been 6, nitrous kits on it. The NHRA guy told me to stand at the 1/8th mile mark and look at the rear tires....they were doing the "burn out grow". Can't imagine that the contact patch was much bigger than 4.5" wide. If I remember right there was several passes in the 4.0 area...with trap speeds approaching 180mph.
I have a buddy that races bikes. He prefers grudge racing, but considering that there is only one bike in the area that can run with him...and it is down right now thanks to its owner forgetting to drain the water out of the cooling system and having the motor crack in several areas. Anyway, Skippy races on street tires, there is no slick on this thing. Have seen him run 8.1 at 179mph or so. We were talking about getting the bike slowed from that speed. He said that the most frightening part of each pass is when first gets on the brakes as the bike becomes a bit unsettled. There is supposedly a new track being built a bit south of us. Is not going to be a sanctioned track, will be used for Race Wars type of events. And Grudge racing. Skippy...and his buddy with the broken turbo ZX14 that is a bit quicker/faster than Skips drag bike were really looking forward to this track. Thing is the shut down area is a couple hundred feet short according to my buddies calculations.
Gotta wonder when the sanctioning bodies are going to say enough is enough. How many "G" forces does the driver of a Nitro car experience at launch? At what "G" force does the human brain turn into jelly?
