UKDRN

A page has now been created for the Nostalgia Funny Car class which includes the official rules and a brief plan for the class. Hopefully by posting here we'll reach anybody that might be considering getting involved.
www.nostalgiafunnycar.co.uk

Interesting. No provision for Methanol burners. Talking around it seems to be a real expensive route to go down with the restrictions listed - not sure how many teams can afford it in europe?

Interesting and great idea but..

I personally think that making the class nitro only is weird decision because its not just of the cost involved but also the knowledge required to run one of those motors.

Of course we all want to see nitro burning floppers but its taken years to get a few cars together and most of them are alky burners.

Long smokey nitro burnouts come at a cost and I would much rather see a show with methanol cars than look at a damaged nitro block sitting in the pits with a collection bucket next to it

More thoughts please?

I was talking to someone much more in the know than myself last weekend about the class. He knew of the rules then and said that the rules make the class very expensive. This is not just from the fact that you _have_ to run nitro, but comes down to the other parts you must use - like potentially very expensive fuel pump's. In the states from my understanding they are having to spin these nitro motors to 10000 rpm's to make the combinations work. The cars over there are regularly doing damage because of this from my understanding. From experience when we were in the US there there was a puff of smoke from the motors at the end of most runs, which is related to the damage being done. Now I am far from an expert - but looking around the net and talking to people with much better knowledge than myself this seems to be the case. Some may say that there is as much, if not more, cost in these nostalgia funnies as in majority of the other pro classes. I seem to recall hearing it said that the cost is scary even compared to pro mod.

Well said Jon! The cars that are out there look like they are all about having fun and putting on a good show. Must suck to have built a nostalgia methanol fc thats out there looking good and running well and then be told you cant run in the class it was intended for!

I dont even have a blower...

Hi guys Its been a while
polarizing subject this, Personally i think its a very bad idea and will probably insure a swift and merciless death of the class before it even gets successfully established.If these rules are adopted then thatll be 4 cars wiped straight out which doesnt look like a succesful model to build a class upon!
I have nothing against either of the 2 combinations but limiting it to Nitro only seems to be very short sighted and a little on the elitist side to me
I would prefere to see a Suoercharged outlaws style approach to this class as i believe it would make it more sustainable. Proposed rules look pretty much like a copy and paste approach with very little thought gone into it (do we have to blindly follow US all the time? is there no one confident enough within the uk tech committee to lead this project to a more uk based level?)
Im not attacking anyone on a personal level so dont feel this way,merely throwing out some thoughts
Ricky Gowen

I can probably shed some light on the thinking behind the regulations.

It might come as a surprise to some but there are still a few people that fancy the challenge of running nitro. Of these potential candidates, some dismiss it citing "the cost of the fuel" or "they're always damaging stuff", some just can't bring a crew together with sufficient experience, there's a million reasons not to do it. However, in spite of the difficulties, a few people are up for it and I'm fortunate enough to work with two of them.

From the outset we could see it would be an uphill struggle. Nitro disappeared from 'sportsman' racing a lifetime ago and there's precious few people left around that know much about it. Nonetheless, four years ago we had dialogue with some of the relevant parties at Santa Pod regarding the potential for a nitro Nostalgia Funny Car class and the response was one of 'cautious' approval.

Fast forward four years and we've started. Paul and Wendy have been pounding away for a while now and it's nice to finally join them. To the best of my knowledge neither they or the guys I work with own an oil company, they're all '9 to 5ers' so to speak. Since our cars debut, the discussions I've had at Santa Pod with James Forster have centred around how the class should look in two years time. Speaking on behalf of our team I indicated that we built the car to race other nitro cars not methanol cars, I have nothing against methanol cars but if we had wanted to race with methanol cars that's what we would have built.

The proposed 'Nostalgia Funny Car' class has not come at the expense of anything. If people have built methanol cars to run in a methanol NFC class then they should continue to do so, I personally think it's a great idea and for most people is a far better option. During the next two seasons the few nitro NFC's that exist will be mixing it with AA/FA's, AA/A's and BB/FC's. If there's enough interest in the NFC's and they can make two to three runs a day without throwing engine parts everywhere then we'll have a class, if not we wont, it's a simple as that.

For people that just want to run fast in a Funny Car with the least amount of grief, build a methanol car. For at least 15 years, Pro Mod style Hemi's have been powering 2,700lb cars into the fives using a readily available 14-71 blower with only 19% overdrive, a typical Funny Car is probably 400lbs lighter, it's a no brainer. However, if you fancy the challenge that nitro brings, strap on a pair and step up to the plate.

See you at Easter

Rob Loaring, Garlick - Antoniou Apache Funny Car

BTW, just think i should say that im not trying to have a dig at anyone. I have total respect for the cars out there that can run this class and the teams behind them.

The reason i posted is because I am passionate about nostalgia racing, and to see nostalgia fuel funnies battling again over here will be immense - i had a great time watching the class in the states. That said it's certainly not the class i could / would race in simply because im a FED guy. But i want to see the class do well, and i can only see that happening if it has strength in numbers. Like I said im not an expert, and im certainly not against nitro. I spoke with friends who know much more about what these rules actually mean than I do, and they highlighted just how much it will cost following the rules they have in the states. They believed there were other options for running a nostalgia nitro car that would work out better cost wise while not being detrimental to the show.

Interesting Dorris.

Would you care to share any of this information ?