HOW SLOW CAN NITRO GO?

By Jeff Burk
1/7/05

For some reason, the NHRA has almost always tried to slow down the race cars. It really all goes back to 1957 when NHRA and Wally Parks (those two legendary names were synonymous in those days) made the misguided decision that nitro was dangerous and the cars were going too fast, so they decided to ban nitro as a fuel and make 'em burn gasoline. It was an experiment that failed miserably when the fans and racers like Don Garlits and others went to AHRA events and other races where nitro-burning (fast) cars were welcome.

Fast forward, please, thirty years or so to 1988. When "The Thrill" broke the four-second barrier at the Texas Motorplex it was some of the biggest news in auto racing. But NHRA's immediate reaction was to adopt a spec rear gear ratio of 3.20 for Top Fuel and Funny Cars in order to slow down the steady increase of speeds and ET's. Many at NHRA expressed the fear that the cars were simply going too fast for the tracks.

That decision may have worked somewhat as it was almost four years to the month when Kenny "The King" Bernstein went 301 mph and change to shatter that speed barrier. NHRA didn't take drastic action like a gear change after that barrier was broken, but they did institute rules restricting wings and other areas in an attempt to again slow the nitro cars down. Many times they used the reasoning that they were trying to control costs. Once again those efforts failed miserably as ET's continued to drop and speeds and cost spiraled upwards. Nevertheless, drag racing had a decade of unprecedented growth and success. 

For the last 15 years or so the NHRA tech department has tried a variety of methods designed to slow sown the sport's quickest and fastest, including restricting wing area, regulating the percentage of nitro in the fuel mix, designating spec rear tires and a spec rear gear ratio while at the same time inexplicably allowing non-stop development of superchargers, clutches, and fuel systems. 

Thankfully for serious, diehard drag racing fans, since Eddie Hill's magical 4.99 lap in 1988 and Bernstein's 301-mph lap in 1992, speeds and elapsed times have incrementally

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and steadily improved. Year after year speed records were reset, with the 310, 320, and 330 barriers falling, and in 2004 the idea of a 340-mph pass became a distinct possibility.

At the same time ET's dropped until Top Fuel cars were consistently recording ET's in the sub-4.50 range and Fuel Coupes were knocking on the door of a 4.59 lap and both cars regularly exceeded 330 mph in the traps.

For the hardcore drag race fans, the last couple of decades have been a dizzying, adrenaline-drenched thrill ride. Fans that couldn't be at the races in person frantically logged onto their favorite Internet site to see the latest speeds and ET's from speed palaces like Rockingham, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and E-Town.

Over the past twenty years or so I can't remember how many times I've seen a crowd at a NHRA or IHRA event stand and roar their approval when a record number came up on the scoreboards.