REV LIMITER AT WORK

The Agent got to chatting with Tony Schumacher after his latest win at Reading, PA, and the champ called it "a big change" to drive with the NHRA-mandated MSD 8971 Pro Mag Digital Retard Control in place. "It hits hard. I mean it scares the life out of you, dropping all the cylinders down there," he said. "So it's doing what it's supposed to do, but as a driver we've been trained our whole lives to wait for the thing to drop a cylinder and lift. Now, all of a sudden they're telling me to stay in it when it's doing weird stuff down there. It's a unique situation."

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Alan Johnson (above left), crew chief on Schumacher's U.S. Army Top Fueler, said he can't really adjust his tune-up for the rev limiter. "All I do is try to make the car run as fast as it can and when the rev limiter hits, it is what it is. I think the best speed we ran this weekend was 325 and there were a number of people that ran faster, but what's happening is our car is reaching RPM so much earlier than theirs that the retarder hits earlier. When it hits earlier it slows the speed down more, but we're not willing to give up the power and the ET that it takes to get to that spot, so we're just going to keep running it that way."

Makes the Agent wonder if that 337-mph blast the Army gang made at Brainerd a few weeks back might have been the fastest we'll ever see. (Ian Tocher Photo) [9-20-2005]

GETTING OUT OF SHAPE

DRO ace photographer Todd Dziadosz took these shots of some Top Fuel cars in the lights at Maple Grove. Note the incredible distortion of the rear tires on Doug Herbert and Doug Kalitta's dragsters and the arching of Doug Foley's chassis. And consider that none of these cars were close to approaching speeds over 330 mph! With this kind of stress it's little wonder that tires and chassis occasionally fail. (Todd Dziadosz photos) [9-20-2005]