I've got no experience running Nitro, but I can say that my engine builder builds a ton of high-dollar blown alcohol engines and he always says the difference between alcohol and nitro is huge. As he says "Nitro hurts a lot of stuff . . ." Cheap it will never be . . .
I would guess 5 or 6 guys with good jobs could run a fuel car. My goal is to run my altered as an A/ Fuel Altered, that's injected on fuel. It's just going to take along time and a lot of money. My hat is off to Mr. Conder, I hope to see you run with the big boys someday.
G***er1961: Here is a pic of my dad's A/fuel altered for inspiration! The first one is from Fremont, early 70's, the second in my driveway same era. Good luck, and if you need some advice, I'd be glad to help. Dave
I could not agree more however "***uming you know what you are doing" should be in bold and underlined. I was recently discussing running that combination with a longtime east coast nitro racer.
I may be wrong, but in order to run an inj nitro car affordably, ie iron block, P/G, ect your probably gonna run 7.0 to 7.50's. Or your gonna buy parts at a pretty high rate. The iron block being the limiting factor. JMO Lippy
Lippy, The good A and B/ND cars in NHRA are running in the 6.80-7.00 range on straight methanol. Those cars are far from cheap though.
I am talking low budget nostalgia nitro. I personally know of one car that runs 6.90's-7.0's pretty regularly. It's a Donovan block and a crowerglide. FED. Another friends is a iron 354 hemi, it will run 7.50 down a dirt road with a P/G. The 7.50 car is on 80-85% nitro. The Donovan is on 95-98%. These are both budget cars. Low buck. The block and crank are the limiting factor. You can not beat on an iron factory block with a bunch of timing and fuel volume to run 6.0's all the time you will destroy it. BUT, you can back the timing down and take some fuel away and run 7.0-7.50's all day long. But to be on the cheap and run an iron block I don't believe you will run in the 6's very many times on a block. Keep the timing in the thirty's fuel volume reasonable and have fun all day. Lippy
I wish we still had that car, It was sold in 1975, to a guy in San Jose- no idea what ever happened to it.
Cool altered Dave. Why don't you buy some pipe and build another one Dave? C'mon, we have four or five cars already that are planning on running together at different events. I would be more than happy to help. I do happen to have a set of solid alum heads for a BBC and a block, crank, enderle stacks and a new enderle front cover. I also think I have a -1 enderle pump, and stuff laying around. Lippy. Oh and a set of front wheels.
Thanks Lippy: I have a boatload of parts, I would love to get involved in putting together a cl*** to run an injected nitro series of some kind- The guys I used to race with have gone partners on a Top Alcohol Funny Car... Where are you guys going to run (I see you are in Kansas)? Your car looks *****in' btw Dave
Three cars are together. Ours is a grand or so away from running again Another is still being ***embled, Cordova is one place we all want to run again together. We just all want to show up and run together. RACE, excuse me.. Tulsa is another track, Ardmore, all of our cars are UH, UM, legal ch***is tagged cars. Except we don't give a **** about No Hot Rods Allowed, (nhra). We just figure if we are legal at an nhra track, license, car ect...we are good to go anywhere. I have one ten lb fire bottle on our car now, they want 20. I do not have a place for another bottle. I don't have a floater rear, I won't either. But other than that, I am legal to 6.0. We are outlaw A/F. There are many places to run and we don't run for free. Cheap maybe, but not FREE. This type of car is not cheap to build. But compared to a fast doorslammer, it's real cheap!! And a hell of a lot more fun!! I especially like the idea of it pulling HARDER when it gets into high gear than it did in low! Like Jackie Gleason use to say...And away we go!! Oh yeah, and if they will let us I'd like to bring the dragster to the HAMB drags this year. Lippy
Tim Conder for President! He speaks for all of us that "get it". I could listen to him "preach" all day.
Sorry Tim. Unless it's a bad track and it's the finals...no smoke. Were fighting lots of battles here right now. My partner on the A/F car, Larry, has cancer. Leon and I will run the car by ourselves for awhile. BTW, check in at HOME more often. Lippy
hey man ya'll bring that **** to ardmore we would love to have you the track owner might kick in a little $$$$ cause i know you guys would draw a crowd! You can contact me,or rob ragland"dragnews on here" or go to ardmoredragway.com !! The weekend of may 8 is the white wall and vintage drags and sep 4 the hot rod reunion nostalgia race. You guys come it would be kick ***!! Hope to see ya. Robert.
all this talk about sbc fuel cars makes me think I should sell the altered and get a 160 inch rail with a short body.
Quick question.... What were the rails running during the fuel ban? Timewise.... Were "gas" cars "smokers" too? With all the hoopla being focused on fuelers, kinda curious what it would take to throw a gas rail together....
I know Lippy, I should get on Franks again! I just got my computer and camera set-up back so maybe soon. Sorry to hear about your friend, wish him luck from all of us. I may have to be a superfan spectator this year instead of a racer. ****, I'm new at that TOO! This recession and my fueler sitting in my shop doing nothing just might turn me into a criminal this year. I think I'll rob B of A.... I won't take much, just the service charges I've been goosed out of for a year and a half!!!! !@#$%^&&^%$#@#$...sorry sorry, that ain't car related. @#$%^&^%$@#$%^&&^%$#!!!!!!!!! Anyway, I'm with all you crazy ****ers. This **** ain't for everybody y'know...You gotta be..."special."
Robert, we'll see what the year brings. Tim, hang in there bud. Yes we crazy mo-fo's. G***er, can't tell ya what to run, just run something!! Dragsters sure are easy to work on. Plus you get more smoke per ft.
Well I am gonna give it a shot... and still collecting parts...from my other thread... It will take some time....but I have a lot of what i need so far...
Conder, when your car is finshed will it be legal to run in NTF? I would love to see you out there in Bakersfield running the "gutter cars." I think once the folks see your car run, there will be a lot of support for more "smokers." I use to help out a guy with a true 1972 Don Long Top Fuel car. He didn't run the big numbers, but the people loved that car. Most people I know don't care about how low a number a car runs. If they did they would drop a bunch a money and go to a NHRA "Big Show."
The original idea when the car was built was to make it legal not only for NTF, but big show top fuel as well. "Legal" as in if I actually wanted to qualify the car I could p*** tech and try. Maybe in 2001 the car would've been good to go for that, but I have no idea what the rules are now. I'm sure the car could easily be made legal for current NTF, but with my small fuel pump and mag I don't think it would make the show. Still, trying would be awesome! Rolling to the line next to Bernstein on a fresh license, pedal clutch, no computer and a full candy 'flake 'chute tail body...You never know, he might blow the tires off and I'd outrun him! Jeff, that is a FINE piece of art there man. Beautiful.
Man I would loved to see her out at the March Meet or the CHRR next to the gutter cars. The fans would love it. In the show or not it would be nice to see.
Thanks James. There was a guy running NTF back at the start of my deal ('99 or so) named Pierre Poncia. The body was supposed to be the "Hunt Bros." rail from the film "More American Graffitti" with a brand new NTF legal ch***is. It was painted candy red and called the "Sniper". You can see in this picture there is no motor dump and very little chrome, but Poncia was racing against the NTF "sit up" cars back then. I read he wasn't very compe***ive, but that could have been for many reasons (other than this car looking so good!) He ran plain slots on it and the paint was pretty basic. The nose on it seems a lot more squared off than I remember the Hunt Bros. car being too, but I can't say if that's true. Where is this car now? Anybody know?
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