turbo promods

[soisanted]

i know we have a few running in Europe right now. Any more big names planning on going this route? i would love to see flame spitting 250+mph door cars at santapod

i was in las vegas in april and surprisingly i overheard quite a few bad comments from spectators when one of the 4 or 5 turbo cars came round but i love them. its a big FU to the guys stuck with iron age way of doing things in drag racing

more turbo p/m please

[Burndown]

The Pro Mod National ET record is now held by a turbo car at 5.772.

Mike Castellana ran 5.781 with his "Iron age" car with carbs and nitrous. The rules are designed for the three different engine combinations to be closely matched and competitive. This is the way to make a class popular, and with that in mind most racers are sensibly sticking with the combinations that they have the most knowledge of.

I think much of the Pro Mod turbo hype is starting to subside now in the US because it was pretty much based on the fact Brad Personette ran really quick at the back end of last season. Reality is now showing, that as far as the championship goes, Nitrous and Alcohol combinations are still much more consistant and pretty much just as quick within the current rules.

[anonymous-user]

You do realise that the majority of the "space age" turbo cars rely on "iron age" tech like pushrods & magnetos still, right? Electronic injection doesn't suddenly mean cutting edge technology, not when you can buy a 20-odd year old MG Metro for about £100 with the same deal. The turbo's have bought another welcomed variation to the class, and EFI is indeed infinitely better than the "flushing toilet" fuel systems of blown engines, but the old stuff isn't dead just yet.

[The Enthusiast]

soisanted said:

i know we have a few running in Europe right now. Any more big names planning on going this route? i would love to see flame spitting 250+mph door cars at santapod

i was in las vegas in april and surprisingly i overheard quite a few bad comments from spectators when one of the 4 or 5 turbo cars came round but i love them. its a big FU to the guys stuck with iron age way of doing things in drag racing

more turbo p/m please

Drag Racing @ Vegas rocks! Some US fans dont like hairdryers as you said. Turoboes are impressive but the whole concept of turbos was used in drag racing back in the 1960s so that must be iron age too. Plus if blown had there own way they would possibly be running 5.50s-5.60s ets.

[CH3NO2ADDICT]

Twin Turbos - plus ca change ...

It's been said before but Turbo Saxon really was ahead of its time.

http://www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk/alan_curra...

[soisanted]

i understand its a modern induction on a old style engine but they don't exactly use iron blocks with wobbly pencil thin pushrods in any application. there is nothing a standard hemi shares with a brad V11. with all the RnD going into these pushrod v8s then they are still current engines, so its not the same as turbocharging a metro engine. if a modern big inch ohc v8 was available and proven with all the speed parts available as say a brad hemi then that's the way to go but for now the pushrod is king, only because nothing else is available.

i know turbo cars are a bit temperamental staging i watched the r2b2 vett in qualifying >.< so that's an area where more development is needed for sure. it seems the nitrous and blower cars were holding back until the turbo cars went fast but when someone starts matching or gets close to the faster blower/nitrous cars in the first half of the track in a turbo car and gets the staging woes sorted and it will happen. then people will be pissed. i love it

[soisanted]

sure they were used in the 60's.
dont get me wrong i love blower cars too. blowers were used in the 20's or earlier so even older but mercs still use them, say no more.
it just gets on my nerves when guys who only understand the old way piss on the new way or new in relative terms to dragracing and promod in general and discard it as noncence because it sounds different or doesn't have the traditional hotrodish look with half the engine hanging out the bonnet. that's what its really about is... most drag cars are 60's or 70's American muscle car based or something like that. people especially in USA associate turbos with jap compact series ricers and not muscle cars, it is against the norm to combine the two. it pisses them off, its great
hope to see more come out in Europe soon

[soisanted]

The Enthusiast said:

if blown had there own way they would possibly be running 5.50s-5.60s ets.

same can be said for the others too if they could do what they liked

[Burndown]

soisanted said:

when someone starts matching or gets close to the faster blower/nitrous cars in the first half of the track in a turbo car and gets the staging woes sorted and it will happen. then people will be pissed. i love it

And then the rules will be amended to even up the class and you will cry.

[Burndown]

soisanted said:

sure they were used in the 60's.
dont get me wrong i love blower cars too. blowers were used in the 20's or earlier so even older but mercs still use them, say no more.
it just gets on my nerves when guys who only understand the old way piss on the new way or new in relative terms to dragracing and promod in general and discard it as noncence because it sounds different or doesn't have the traditional hotrodish look with half the engine hanging out the bonnet. that's what its really about is... most drag cars are 60's or 70's American muscle car based or something like that. people especially in USA associate turbos with jap compact series ricers and not muscle cars, it is against the norm to combine the two. it pisses them off, its great
hope to see more come out in Europe soon

There are some who reject things that are different and then some who follow only because something is different.

Then there is the vast majority who just want to see competitive close racing after which everybody goes home safely.

[soisanted]

Burndown said:

And then the rules will be amended to even up the class and you will cry.

i wont cry lol, i was chatting to some of the turbo guys and guy who crew on them in veges as im a mapper, i map cars for a living so i had more interest in the turbo cars. i was getting my head around there systems and got talking to some of them. some said more than others, they did not say directly, just from conversation. but its my opinion that the big guys are sand bagging. i believe now is the time to go turbo if your thinking about it before y,all get left behind. the next few years will be interesting.


No more from me now
im actually off to Slovakia tonight to map a Mk2 golf sitting on a shortened Audi quarto floor. expecting 900+ hp, should be interesting

takecare

[Chris Isaacs]

European turbo Pro Mods? Currently you have Graham Ellis's Superbird here, plus Frosty who should I believe be back out at the Euros. Spencer Tramm and myself are chugging along with our 1970 Duster which is still aiming at Easter 2013 for a debut. In Sweden, the Lindahl brothers have a '63 Corvette which they are (or will be) testing, and Martin Lundquist has recently run as quick as 6.14 @ 239 at Tierp for Europe's best turbo performance so far. There is also a Viper in Sweden, plus a couple of other cars whose details I can't recall at present. (Sorry to those drivers - they say the first sign of old age is memory loss. I can't remember what the second one is).;)

[The Enthusiast]

soisanted said:

sure they were used in the 60's.
dont get me wrong i love blower cars too. blowers were used in the 20's or earlier so even older but mercs still use them, say no more.
it just gets on my nerves when guys who only understand the old way piss on the new way or new in relative terms to dragracing and promod in general and discard it as noncence because it sounds different or doesn't have the traditional hotrodish look with half the engine hanging out the bonnet. that's what its really about is... most drag cars are 60's or 70's American muscle car based or something like that. people especially in USA associate turbos with jap compact series ricers and not muscle cars, it is against the norm to combine the two. it pisses them off, its great
hope to see more come out in Europe soon

I see where your coming from. I admit a turbo setup on a v8 is so impressive. I like pro mod because of all the different engine combinations. Vegas 2009 was a prime example. Personett was held on the line in the final which caused alot of controversy. In a way I thought it was good,providing there was no engine damage. It added suspense and I enjoyed watching that race.

[The Enthusiast]

Burndown said:

And then the rules will be amended to even up the class and you will cry.

That will happen. They always change/ammend the rules which is a shame really. A fuel dragsters a prime example. Edging to the 4s.

[anonymous-user]

soisanted said:

i understand its a modern induction on a old style engine but they don't exactly use iron blocks with wobbly pencil thin pushrods in any application. there is nothing a standard hemi shares with a brad V11. with all the RnD going into these pushrod v8s then they are still current engines, so its not the same as turbocharging a metro engine. if a modern big inch ohc v8 was available and proven with all the speed parts available as say a brad hemi then that's the way to go but for now the pushrod is king, only because nothing else is available.

I don't really see what you're getting at to be honest. Blown and nitrous motors don't use wobbly pushrods or iron blocks either so how come you consider them iron age? It was the blown combinations development that allowed the Brad XI stuff to exist in the first place, and modern big inch nitrous pushrods could double as a scaffold pole, one of the many purely bespoke areas on those motors. There's probably been more technology, science and research gone in to nitrous cylinder heads over the past few years than any turbo package has received. There's plenty of current manufacturers still using roots or screw type supercharger technology too. So we've established that from the manifold down there's no real massive difference in any of the combinations....so nitrous and and blower motors are "iron age" purely because they don't run programmable fuel systems? Don't get me wrong, i like the turbo performances, but it's hardly reinventing the wheel.

Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 26th August 20:46

[soisanted]

Iron age was probably the wrong word to use.
I'm Australian by birth and back home at the drags when I was a kid I used to draw dragsters and funnys from an early age. I'm an old fart now and the pic I drew back then of the engines still look exactly like they do now. Barral valve and everything. When compared to other boring forms of motorsport dragracing really has stuck to it's roots.

Im off tc

[anonymous-user]

True yeah, it has kind of stuck to it's guns. But then again, it's drag racing's humble hot rod foundations that gives it such a hardcore following i think; that grass roots accessibility, being able to relate to and understand what is in essence very simple technology - and then trying to comprehend how the hell it lives! You have to admit though, appearances can be deceptive. Yes a modern supercharged hemi bares a very strong resemblance to how they looked in the 60's & 70's, but the quality, engineering and reliability are light years apart. I know from hands on experience the amount of technology that's packed in to a modern pro mod car, regardless of powerplant - digital ignition and timing control, pneumatically activated, electronically manipulated fuel management systems, infinite data logging capabilities etc etc..some things that were never imaginable back when kids were loading up their hot rods with nitro, or wondering what would happen if they moved their back axle forwards by 18 inches. They may be low tech by formula one or road car standards, but the technology of any modern pro mod, or even drag car in general is not to be under estimated i don't think. Truth be known, many advancements in technology have been legislated out of the sport anyway - overhead cams, fuel injection (in pro stock's case), two speed blowers, screw blowers etc etc are all things that have been outlawed or restricted in the headline classes for years. Couple those with gear ratio, engine rpm and weight restrictions and you can understand why it's been necessary to persevere with old technologies and ideas. Saying that though, on an engine designed to operate purely at 100% throttle, is something such as electronic injection such a massive issue?

Bring on the turbo's indeed, but don't dismiss our much loved sport's roots.