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“We were going to do this without their blessing,”
he stated. “What we needed most importantly was the
SFI tag. The Safety Foundation people had to look at what
we were doing and validate our study, and from that point
you’re allowed to make parts, just like nowadays anybody
can build a chassis if it passes the inspection and you’ve
followed the SFI specs on how to build the cockpit.
“There are guidelines for tubing layout and so on,
and we followed the standard procedure that anybody would
have to follow in order to implement a major component like
this into professional drag racing. So we went through all
those flaming hoops and we’re actually making parts
right now.”
For both performance
and safety purposes, Kloeber said the CFD study addressed
every aerodynamic surrounding a Top Fuel dragster—“over
the top, underneath it, around the sides, through the engine,
and out the exhaust pipes’’—giving him a
complete view of what he feels will be the future of drag
racing. “We’ve looked at everything as well as
it can be looked at.”
Kloeber said the monostrut car will “definitely”
make its first race appearance at an IHRA event, “and
I promise you it will be a blue car.” Ron Jones will
fabricate “multiple sets” of carbon-fiber body
fairings and Mike Magiera, who designed the fairing and monostrut
tail, will be building the wing itself.
“We’re trying really, really hard to have it
racing this year,” Kloeber said. “We’re
getting close.”
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