Looking back I see several kinds of exhaust set ups,,,straight out,,others pointed down at the ground ,,then the drop down and the shoot for the sky type. Was there a method to this madness of styles ,,or just that a 'style'
top fuel cars used the downward force from the exhaust to help plant the car, if you think it doesn't help just watch a p*** where one or more cylinders are misfiring, the car will pull to that side.
i think it was just personal prefrence,at first than later guys started playing around with several different types for there cars and figured out what worked best for there cars.
In the late '70s and early '80s when we ran our front engine dragster in A/ED cl*** we had a set of up turned zoomes and a set of '67 camaro ch***is headers (yes ch***is headers) with a 31/2" collector on them and had 4 or 5 lengths of pipe to change out the collector length. The zoomes slowed the car down a little bit, while the ch***is headers would make it a bit faster in MPH.
Wing - If you study pics from the very early days, you'll notice lots of variation in dragster headers, from mile-long "zoomie" types, to super shortys. Most though, went for medium length "weed burners" that turned down, then out. Most of what was going on then was essentially "by guess and by golly", and not too many racers had really put any solid engineering to work. The shorter, sharply-upturned zoomies were at first about cleaning the slicks as much as anything. Check photos from the '60s, and you'll note the rear pipe was often cut off at a steep angle to put more exhaust on the tire. Some racers even spread the last two pipes apart to cover more tire area. When horsepower really began to get crazy, it didn't take long for them to notice that the exhaust downforce actually contributed substantially to traction. Nowdays, exhaust downforce plays a key role in planting the tires.
Had a chance to talk to Jack Schafer (Flathead Jack) a while back and talked about the change in his headers from straight out to pointed back. He said with them pointed back and down he made an extra 3mph on the top end. Here are some pictures of some ole dragsters, only one flathead though;
You can't get a better discription than that. 100% correct. The car below is something that looks good but in practice is fairly useless when trying to run nitro, especially on a flawed Indy engine.
The Jalopy Journal
