CRR wrote:Rat_Fink_67 wrote:
They didn't run many 5.60's back then 
Plus I'd be willing to bet a lot of money on the fact that if you walked in to the pits at a national event in the late 60's or early 70's and said "I've got one of these little black boxes that records everything that happens on a run" every single team would've snapped your hand off! Just because the technology didn't exist doesn't necessarily mean that it wasn't desired.
Agreed, but the point I was making was that before data loggers were invented, crew chiefs were still able to tune the car to get down the track. How many crew chiefs can still manage that today without a black box?
Crew chiefs still tune the cars to get down the track, a datalogger is a reference aid, not a magic wand.
I know what you mean though, but a modern day crew chief could still get a car down the track. There are plenty of decent numbers ran in first qualifying sessions; yes they have retrospective data to refer to but the tune up still has to be adapted to the current track and weather conditions. If you take a Top Fuel car though with their different ignition and clutch timing curves, it's virtually impossible to eke out the maximum performance without being able to see what's happening as it goes down track - human eyes and ears can only get you so far. And I defy anyone to be able to say what RPM their motor was turning at a certain point down track or what their driveshaft speed was at .250 seconds. I wouldn't fancy running a modern Pro Mod car with 4 or 5 stages of nitrous without being able to monitor what the fuel pressure and timing etc were doing either!
Dataloggers aren't voodoo or something to be sneered at; yes you can run without one, but they make running a combination at 10/10ths a hell of a lot more attainable.
Look at the strides made after Dale Armstrong and Kenny Bernstein developed the first Racepak, even they didn't realise that the clutch slipped all the way through the finish line until then.
