Silly times in outlaw pro mod.

Silly times in outlaw pro mod.

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Discussion

fc72

Original Poster:

6 posts

116 months

Sunday 24th August 2014
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Amazing times coming from St Louis ,but really concerned about safety ,just read on yellow bullit they are scared of restrictions at NHRA tracks, but they are running so light there chassis would not get a ticket.

I agree that they are doing super quick times, but rumours of nitrous boosted turbo cars, nitro methane etc, but if you let anything go, it just ends up who has the most money.

But the main point is what happens when one of these has a bad crash,like Grahams at pod, would there be any car left !!!


37chevy

3,280 posts

155 months

Sunday 24th August 2014
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I assume they would have to run to same nhra safety standards in terms of the cars build?

fc72

Original Poster:

6 posts

116 months

Sunday 24th August 2014
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After reading yellow bullit, they are scared of NHRA safety rules being applied.

As far as I can read almost anything goes, They run 200/300 KG under NHRA min weights with possibly 1500+ more power.


ribaric

262 posts

174 months

Sunday 24th August 2014
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That appears to answer my question as to why, as if from nowhere, people are suddenly running 5.50 in a doorslammer. There's a 5.47 now it seems, is the track a full 1/4 mile?

Turbobird1

443 posts

147 months

Sunday 24th August 2014
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the end of outlaw 1/4 mile racing was just sealed, unlimmited middle eastern budget steve petty earning big bucks, anything goes, only petty can beat himself now

37chevy

3,280 posts

155 months

Sunday 24th August 2014
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Turbobird1 said:
the end of outlaw 1/4 mile racing was just sealed, unlimmited middle eastern budget steve petty earning big bucks, anything goes, only petty can beat himself now
For once I end up agreeing with you graham.....Can Am racing in the States ratty much ran like outlaw pro mod, there were pretty much no rules, it was incredibly spectacular for a few years but got so ridiculously expensive, it imploded. Sometimes rules can be a good thing, like you say it can keep the costs in check a little bit (it can sometimes increase costs mind you....)

Chris Isaacs

25 posts

189 months

Sunday 24th August 2014
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Turky Al in the Q80 turbo car beats Frankie Taylor with the blown Corvette, 5.46 to 5.47 in the final at St Louis... unreal.

The cars are running with SFI legal chassis. The concern is whether SFI 25.1E, which is the chassis spec for door cars under 2800 lbs and which has up till now been used on cars which run down to the 5.80's and 250 mph, would be safe if a 5.40/270 mph car had a big spill. Years ago, there was only one SFI fast door car spec (25.1), and the fastest door cars were Pro Stock and nascent Pro Mod cars at 2500 lb or less. Then came the 'fast street car' phenomenon, which had minimum weight rules, and saw Pro Mod/Stock type times in ex Pro Stock chassis with 600 lb or more of weight added. After a few bad accidents, including Steve Grebeck at Orlando, SFI put a maximum weight on 25.1 of 2800 lb, then introduced upgraded specs 25.2 (3200 lb) and later 25.3 (3600 lb) to cater for heavier cars running fast.

One of the several reasons why fast 1/8th mile door car racing became so popular was that it reduces the top end speed - speed and weight are the two biggest factors in how 'long' an accident goes on for, as well as how much ultimate load is put through the driver's safety cell.

fc72

Original Poster:

6 posts

116 months

Sunday 24th August 2014
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Thanks for the info chris, most of what I said came of yellow bullit, probably not the most reliable place for facts.

But basically they are running pretty scary running gear in chassis/cars which were not designed for the speeds/times being achieved.

Do you know what rules they are using regards running gear if any ??

Mark13

403 posts

177 months

Sunday 24th August 2014
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37chevy said:
Turbobird1 said:
the end of outlaw 1/4 mile racing was just sealed, unlimmited middle eastern budget steve petty earning big bucks, anything goes, only petty can beat himself now
For once I end up agreeing with you graham.....Can Am racing in the States ratty much ran like outlaw pro mod, there were pretty much no rules, it was incredibly spectacular for a few years but got so ridiculously expensive, it imploded. Sometimes rules can be a good thing, like you say it can keep the costs in check a little bit (it can sometimes increase costs mind you....)
Cost didn't kill Can-Am it was a combination of technology (turbocharging), withdrawal of the series sponsor and the oil crisis in 1974. The original series was accessible using normally aspirated big block technology and a simple chassis, but the McLaren team were almost invincible until Porsche evolved the 917 with turbocharging and this followed Bruce McLarens death and growing emphasis on F1.

It was good while it lasted but nothing is forever, particularly in motorsport.

Chris Isaacs

25 posts

189 months

Sunday 24th August 2014
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SCSN rules for Outlaw PM are pretty minimal - functional doors and offset driver (ie no centre-steer cars) are mandatory, nitro is banned and you need to run an engine diaper. Otherwise it's pretty much run what ya brung, and hope ya brung enough. Considering that, in the last 9 months the outright door car record has dropped from 5.73 and 262-ish mph to 5.46 at 272, there may now be a question in some people's minds over what actually constitutes a chassis 'built for the job' in terms of crash protection as we are now in uncharted territory, at least in practical terms - I don't know how much, if any, work SFI have done in extrapolating current crash data to computer-model higher speed accidents.

Chris Isaacs

25 posts

189 months

Sunday 24th August 2014
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Mark13 said:
Cost didn't kill Can-Am it was a combination of technology (turbocharging), withdrawal of the series sponsor and the oil crisis in 1974. The original series was accessible using normally aspirated big block technology and a simple chassis, but the McLaren team were almost invincible until Porsche evolved the 917 with turbocharging and this followed Bruce McLarens death and growing emphasis on F1.

It was good while it lasted but nothing is forever, particularly in motorsport.
Correct... it was also an example of rulesmakers trying to address a situation but actually making things worse. When Porsche built the turbo 917's which began to dominate the series, they had to carry something like 100 gallons of fuel to last the 2 hour races. So the Can-Am organisers split the races into 2 one-hour heats, reducing the risk of a major explosion in the event of a crash but also playing into Porsche's hands by allowing them to turn the boost up without risking running out of fuel in the shorter races. I remember seeing an enlightening interview with Peter Bryant (a British race mechanic/designer who moved to the States in the 1960's and constructed the Ti22 titanium monocoque Can-Am car), who said something along the lines of, Can-Am should instead have left the races at 2 hours and left Porsche with the choice of either lumbering round at the start with 700 lb of fuel to drag round the track, or start with less fuel try to build enough on-track advantage to make a mid-race fuel stop... and that, if he had been given the budget and the original 2 hour race format in the early 1970's, he would have built a fuel-efficient turbo V6 car with a very light start-line weight, to try to run away enough from the Porsches in the early stages to hang on to the finish. Sorry to go off topic!

Total loss

2,138 posts

226 months

Sunday 24th August 2014
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Crazy times in the USA in outlaw, but at least we have new European records in legal Pro Mod from Tierp, a 5.84 for Micke & 251 mph for Tero

Big go'75

58 posts

172 months

Monday 25th August 2014
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Total loss said:
Crazy times in the USA in outlaw, but at least we have new European records in legal Pro Mod from Tierp, a 5.84 for Micke & 251 mph for Tero
And presumably the first 5 sec nitrous & turbo pro mod runs?! (o/t)(thanks Eurodragster)

tlrracer

165 posts

198 months

Wednesday 3rd September 2014
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And I was there to see history being made, From Frankie's 5.59 it just got better and better!! Roll on SCSN Vegas, I heard rumours of 5.30 sec runs possible from a few sources!