Any rule changes for dw 2013??

[Red Light Ross]

Ok " soft lips " I can imagine what posts may come next.

[milner351]

Where's the popcorn smiley?

[Joe Barry]

They just wanted to give me a fighting chance..........I have soft lips.

Jake I don't even know where to go with that, but maybe it is time for you to take one for the team and work on locations.

And as far as you and Jeff go , I think what you guys do with the combinations you have chosen is very impressive !

[Chad's Dad]

Joe, I can't wait for Drag Week 2013. If i don't have a car ready I at least want to cruise in your car for a day.

[38P]

I really like the steel body cars with real glass. I can tell you for me its about having a car that is legal to go that fast but still have aspects of what the car was before all the safety stuff was added. If a pro mod type of car(Panel Car) were to win its not the same as a guy that has the 3500lb plus car. However if the guy makes it through the week and has the quickest averge he deserves to win believe me. Its easy to fault a pro mod type of car but in reality the folks with these type of cars are doing it the smart way not neccessarily the easier way. Losing to a pro mod type car isnt really losing in my mind. I am so much into the look of the car I am in the process of welding in a steel dash just because I think its cool. I think once there is more pro mod type cars in unlimited you will see the demise of the class however I think it will add focus to the other classes. Regardless of what shows up they have to make the drive and after going to Drag Week its about participating and the great numbers are just a bonus.

Here is something to think about to if you removed the bodies from my car and Dave Ahokas car would you not really have the same thing? Its all about how you dress up that chassis. I say this because I am not a fan of the panel car and very much against it but in reality its a quite hyprocritical. I really like the more complete cars so I dont look at my car as a promod but in respect to safety, how safe is my car with a curb weight of 3800lbs running 7.03@205?

Mr. Barry raises some interesting points . . . and he's invested enough in the pursuit of the jacket to be listened to . . . As an outsider with a slow car who will likely never have the budget to enter an Unlimited car, I have a different perspective.

If Unlimited is truly unlimited, then it absolutely must push the boundaries of what's possible.

While I understand the nostalgia and fan appeal of the big shoeboxes and Larson's barn-door Nova, and definitely respect the incredible ability it takes to put them into the 200 m.p.h. zone . . . My cold logical side questions it. Unlimited is ripe for someone to show up with a truly advanced aerodynamic car.

The fact that Larson has reigned for half a decade in a brick-like 60s muscle car shell is simply amazing (and perhaps somewhat due to the fact that it doesn't make economic sense to special-build a state-of-the-art late model car that could hold up to the rigors of 1,500 miles on the road . . . and very few hot rodders have the skills or budget to make something like that happen)

The fact that Larson's main competitors clearly invest huge sums chasing him, but all run bodies with drag coefficients in the high .40s or low .50s is even more surprising. I suppose they're all thinking with their hearts, instead of their heads . . . or maybe there's some informal "gentleman's agreement" not to unseat Larson with something manufactured after 1969.

Joe Barry's probably right when he speculates that participation in Unlimited could drop off when something too new and too exotic eventually wins and makes the stock-appearing nostalgia cars seem uncompetitive (not that Larson's car is not exotic, considering all the carbon fiber, Lenco, computers, turbos . . . .)

As a fan and a student of racing, I look forward to the day when someone is insane enough to take advantage of the anorexic rulebook and try to make the trip with a "flopper" (how to get out at the QT is an obvious problem with that plan) or a "rail job" or perhaps something that none of us has even thought of yet.

But I do understand how serious competitors who have invested six-figure sums in their dream OEM-based vintage cars would hate that.

Feel free to take these thoughts for what they are . . . musings of a loser with a slow, occasionally 12-second car.

[lun40119]

Jake I don't even know where to go with that, but maybe it is time for you to take one for the team and work on locations.

And as far as you and Jeff go , I think what you guys do with the combinations you have chosen is very impressive !

Thanks Joe.........means alot coming from you. Seriously.

I just come to have fun.....and drink beer......and tequila.

[JeffMcKC]

Joe thanks!

"WE N/A guys" once in a while and talk about we don't get much respect when you guys are knocking on Sixes.

I am more Proud of what we have done with Docs car than mine. That may change this year as the sand bagging will be over for me. Hope to see you guys there, Where ever there is.

[milner351]

Jeff - you call running on 6.5 out of 8 cylinders and still running single digits sandbagging?

I'm so not worthy.

[lun40119]

Yeah Jeff.....9's on 6.5 cylinders. I bet if it is on all 8 it will go in the 8's.......

You are the "King" of the SB/NA cars!!!

[Joe Barry]

Joe, I can't wait for Drag Week 2013. If i don't have a car ready I at least want to cruise in your car for a day.

Aboslutely sir!!!!!!!!!!

[Joe Barry]

Jake and Jeff,

I think most gear heads will agree and appreciate what the N/A guys do, it was just a week ago I sat down at dinner and we discussed the loss of ingenuity with the power adder cars out there. It has become tire management in these cars with ridiculous power and it doesnt take alot of effort in the engine department to do that(Engine guys dont take offense). Now the guys that go out there and use some serious brain power and probably r&d that nobody even can fathom are to me are true engine designers. They do more with less, and then you guys take that engine put it into a brick for a car with these little tires and go lay out a number. Obviously the low et's get the press but when I sit back and look at what the guys can do with an N/A car I realize they are working extremely hard for that et and the number shouldnt reflect the amount of credit they are given for that week.

[Joe Barry]

Mr. Barry raises some interesting points . . . and he's invested enough in the pursuit of the jacket to be listened to . . . As an outsider with a slow car who will likely never have the budget to enter an Unlimited car, I have a different perspective.

If Unlimited is truly unlimited, then it absolutely must push the boundaries of what's possible.

While I understand the nostalgia and fan appeal of the big shoeboxes and Larson's barn-door Nova, and definitely respect the incredible ability it takes to put them into the 200 m.p.h. zone . . . My cold logical side questions it. Unlimited is ripe for someone to show up with a truly advanced aerodynamic car.

The fact that Larson has reigned for half a decade in a brick-like 60s muscle car shell is simply amazing (and perhaps somewhat due to the fact that it doesn't make economic sense to special-build a state-of-the-art late model car that could hold up to the rigors of 1,500 miles on the road . . . and very few hot rodders have the skills or budget to make something like that happen)

The fact that Larson's main competitors clearly invest huge sums chasing him, but all run bodies with drag coefficients in the high .40s or low .50s is even more surprising. I suppose they're all thinking with their hearts, instead of their heads . . . or maybe there's some informal "gentleman's agreement" not to unseat Larson with something manufactured after 1969.

Joe Barry's probably right when he speculates that participation in Unlimited could drop off when something too new and too exotic eventually wins and makes the stock-appearing nostalgia cars seem uncompetitive (not that Larson's car is not exotic, considering all the carbon fiber, Lenco, computers, turbos . . . .)

As a fan and a student of racing, I look forward to the day when someone is insane enough to take advantage of the anorexic rulebook and try to make the trip with a "flopper" (how to get out at the QT is an obvious problem with that plan) or a "rail job" or perhaps something that none of us has even thought of yet.

But I do understand how serious competitors who have invested six-figure sums in their dream OEM-based vintage cars would hate that.

Feel free to take these thoughts for what they are . . . musings of a loser with a slow, occasionally 12-second car.

I agree with you completely, but before I build a purpose built car to bring to this event I want to make sure that going forward they will be excepted. Right now im 3800lbs ,I think at 2600lbs I just might get in the sixes.

[LAGNAF]

Jake and Jeff,

I think most gear heads will agree and appreciate what the N/A guys do, it was just a week ago I sat down at dinner and we discussed the loss of ingenuity with the power adder cars out there. It has become tire management in these cars with ridiculous power and it doesnt take alot of effort in the engine department to do that(Engine guys dont take offense). Now the guys that go out there and use some serious brain power and probably r&d that nobody even can fathom are to me are true engine designers. They do more with less, and then you guys take that engine put it into a brick for a car with these little tires and go lay out a number. Obviously the low et's get the press but when I sit back and look at what the guys can do with an N/A car I realize they are working extremely hard for that et and the number shouldnt reflect the amount of credit they are given for that week.

AMEN Joe.. alltho I look a 200+ mph bricks like you guys drive and think holy sh!t, how do they drive those 1500 miles..

no offense on the "brick" comment.. I understand aerodynamics!! or the lack there of!!

[38P]

Joe, I can't wait for Drag Week 2013. If i don't have a car ready I at least want to cruise in your car for a day.

A DW '12 story . . . Wacky Mick and his EFI-tuning friend from the UK (I don't believe I ever understood his name) had one or two highly entertaining discussions about the "no outside assistance rule" in Tulsa. (Sort of like a hot rodder's version of Monty Python).

Mick's friend was riding along with a non-competitor through Memphis. But apparenty his ride had to bug out. Mick, of course, didn't have any extra room in his "Bad4Ford" postal van, so he asked me if his friend could ride back to Tulsa in my "Storebought" mule.

While silently wondering why anybody would want to do that when there were dozens of quicker, more interesting cars to cruise in (although I did have air conditioning . . . .) , I said yes. It was the least I could do after all the help and advice Mick had provided on the factory-defective nitrous kit.

But, since I had virtually every square inch of my pony car packed with tires, tools, food, camping gear, cameras, and crap I didn't need (no trailer), I started to wonder how I'd actually open up a seat for Mick's friend.

Mick's friend, however, apparently got another ride in a better car . . .

But the reason that they gave me for the last-minute change was simply priceless: They had decided that riding in my car would have been "outside assistance" which could have lead to my disqualification.

[lun40119]

Thanks again for the words Joe.....

But Jeff is the guy who has got it going on......my junk is slow compared to his.