Nitro. Nitrous. Personalities. Actual names on the cars instead of sponsorships. Funny car bodies that don’t look like someone did quick bar-soap art while scrubbing themselves down in the shower. There’s lots of things that many people believe drag racing used to have that seems to be missing for the most part in today’s competition. In my eyes, I miss the days when Pro Stock cars were varied and drivers had no problem speaking what was on their mind, either in interviews, with each other at the top end, or at the starting line to the thrill of the crowd and the annoyance of Buster Couch. Pontiacs met Oldsmobiles, Dodges met Fords…that’s my viewpoint. But there’s one thing that goes back even further that I think I miss even more than that.
Dry hops. If there is an honest-to-God mechanical reason why dry hops exist other than to test the traction, I don’t see it. But what I do see is a way to amp up the crowd. Give that throttle a little blip, let the tires rotate a little bit, and watch the crowd go absolutely insane. It doesn’t matter what class it’s in…if there’s enough noise to override conversation and enough power to turn the fattest of slicks around for a second, the fans will eat it up as if it’s manna from heaven.
What’s one thing you miss?
Convinced that the first 15 seconds or so of the ZZ Top tune “Sleeping Bag” was influenced by a dry hop. Sounds just like one. For that matter, the opening of Van Halen’s “Hot For Teacher” is the soundtrack of a nitro car during a burn-out backup.
NHRA has so ruined drag racing for me that I could really care less about what they do. There are so many things I’d like to see again I wouldn’t know where to start. No track prep or glueing. Pro Stock using actual stock chassis and bodies. Super STOCK cars that were just that, no front wheel drive factory cars that were only offered with up to a V6 with tube chassis and big blocks driving the rear wheels. For fuel classes, just go read Big Daddy’s opinion of what needs to be done from his Hot Rod Magazine interview a couple of years ago. Even the nostalgia organizations have their classes run with ET factoring. It’s just all lost its magic these days other than for the smoke and noise. I’ll leave it to the people who just come for that and to drink beer to enjoy…
Innovation!!! Too many rules take the innovation out of the car builders hands and create boring cookie cutter cars. Drag racing was built on innovation. Unfortunately, creative thinking has been outlawed. Nascar has exactly the same problem.
Fire Burnouts!
https://bangshift.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/fire-burnout.jpg
-Return to steel-cars
-More affordable/slower cars (more competition)
-Eliminate stupid regulations
-FILL THE STANDS and involve the specators more (more free tickets and direct invitations, potensial new specators, children, elderly, schools and so on)
-More sponsors, not necessary bigger
-Better advertising to reach potensial new spectators (radio, newspapers, schools, restaurants and pubs).
-Easier accsess for people when tracks are on remote locations (free buses from cities)
-Develope grassroot drag racing and jr drag racing
-Ask spectators and potensial new spectators about what would make them attend regularely
Run a quarter mile.
Televise on regular channels for those of us that don’t have cable.
Run a quarter mile.
Drop the bikes and cover more sportsman and entry level classes.
Run a quarter mile.
Run a. Quarter. Mile
Stands FULL of people
Actual Pro Stock, not Camaro Stock that we have now.
Not Camaro Stock, Camaro Pro Mod.
Dry hops. Dry Hops. Dry hops.
Modified production! And funny car bodies that aren’t the same
Dry hops, manual transmissions and short-stroke high rpm engines or as Greg Miller suggested, Modified Production! While we’re dreaming, for index racing, how about removing electronically controlled throttle stops. It was much better when it was manually set.
Throttle stops ruined drag racing. Just my opinion, but I remember when Pro Gas started you actually had to figure out “using your brain”, how to get your car on the number. Can’t stand robot race cars.
There is still great drag racing you just have to look outside of N.H.R.A .
Triple that on the Modified Production class, screaming small blocks from every manufacturer, Doug Nash torsion bar 5-speeds, with everything from early Corvettes to Pintos and Monzas and Colts and everything in between. Huge Dana 60’s to handle the 9000rpm launches. The amount of factory hardware that was used is unheard of now days!
Stock or near stock bodies , Fuel Altereds , no Computers, Small blocks in Pro Stock. And for the love of God , 1/4 MILE !!!
Agree with all of the above. Make pro stock all steel bodys(full scale) Maybe like what factory stock is now?? Front wheel drive cars with tube chassis, V8, Modified production?? Maybe go back to the rule books of 70s & 80s??
the NHRA pro classes are about as boring as it gets…..all the cars look the same, one big team after another….blah…blah…blah. I haven’t watched pro stock in years, it hasn’t been worth a damn since the 90’s.
Make pro stock cars have STOCK bodies, maybe that would make it a little better.
Fuel Altereds…Not the current crop of pinocchio nosed aero bodied stuff… Old school style
Gassers… again… Not the carbon fiber tube framed stuff being passed off as Gassers / Nostalgia… the Scott’s Rod AA/Gasser style
How about old school COMPETITION on a 1/4 MILE TRACK? Throw out the limiters, the electronics, the ROBODRIVE! Bring back the guys who built their cars themselves in a one car garage and saved all winter for that dual-quad setup so they could head to the track in the spring and duke it out with other like-minded souls! How ’bout we bring back the MEANING of DRAG RACING?!? Thanks… now I need a beer…
A return to 1/4 mile drag racing for the Top Fuel Funny Car and Dragster classes.
*. Throw out the dual Mag Ignitions
* Which makes the dual spark plug heads obsolete,…throw those out too.
* For years Top Fuel ran 90% nitro, 10% methanol….lets go back to that.
* Cut the fuel pump delivery to the engines by 50%.
* Make the bodies for the funny cars so that the ‘greenhouse’ area where the driver is…….make those conform to a OEM template. Make the front and rear of the bodies conform to OE templates. Only allow the body to be stretched to fit the current Funny car wheel base.
At the end of the day, when my farts last longer than a current NHRA TOP FUEL race……..it can no longer be called a racing. They are now only efforts in futility lead by an organization that has not a clue of what the hell they’re doing.
You want proof? My money is being spent on anything other than a NHRA race….and that’s been going on for 10 years now.
Make Funny cars look like real cars, not a giant cheese wedge.
Make Pro Stock use production American car bodies and engines.
Change rules so that #1 qualifier goes up against #9 instead of #16 to make it more competitive.
Eliminate air clutch controls and electronics from TF and FC classes. Warren Johnson was right when he said a trained monkey could drive a funny car.
Today TF, FC, and PS racing is the least competitive form of drag racing there is. Almost as bad as NASCAR. The same teams win all the races, the Champion is boring because yawn, it\’s always the same handful of drivers. It truly is far more difficult to win a Summit Series bracket race than a NHRA FC race because of all the rounds you have to get through to get a win.
PS motorcycles….big factory teams cry about each other….rules favor one make then another….bah.
What renewed interest in Drag Racing? It wasn\’t the NHRA. It started with Pink\’s, then Street Outlaws, and now No Prep racing. Far more interesting than another hand grenade hemi inside a cheese wedge FC win followed by the obligatory rundown of sponsors….only Force brings any kind of human interest….let me put
my sponsors cap on for the interview.