More race cars with liscence plates......

A buff magazine was talking about the "Stock Appearing" drag events. The winner was a guy with a Hemi Road Runner that ran 10.92. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not dissing the guys car or his accomplishment. What I'm griping about is the splitting hairs on what is and isn't stock or stock appearing. The Pure Stock drags require entrants to run on repro street tires or regular street radials-i.e. Coker Wide Ovals or B.F.G T/A Radials, Firestone Firehawks etc, and don't allow traction enhancing devices. The "Stock Appearing" drags allow any tire as long as it fits in a stock wheelwell. Trust me, by playing with wheel offsets, these guys are running some pretty beefy Drag Radials, or even wrinklewall M&H's. Their also allowed to run pinion snubbers or slapper bars on leaf-spring cars, and bolt-on traction bars on coil-spring cars. Their also allowed to run "Trick" front springs-i.e.-the kind designed to transfer weight rearward faster, and 90 / 10 shocks-because these items look like the stock pieces. Even if the engines were totally stock-a car with this type of drag-race suspension and rubber is going to run substantially faster than a car with a stock suspension and street rubber. Their also allowed to run any gear ratio they want and in automatics, any converter they want. A guy with an L89 Nova was running 4:56:1 gears and a 4,300 rpm converter. Think that'll run a tad quicker than your 396 Nova with a 4-speed or a TH400 and a stock converter and 3.31:1 or 3.73:1 gears? As for the engines-they stretch "stock appearing" pretty far. For example-you can't run aftermarket aluminum heads. But there are guys with big-block Chevys running World Products iron heads, and Mopar guys running Iron Indy heads, and '60s 289 Mustang and '80's "5.0" Mustang racers running iron GT40 heads. These breathe quite a bit better than stock heads! Even with stock stuff-blatant cheating goes on. A guy with a low-11 second, knocking on the door of the 10s, "Tribute" SD 421 1963 Catalina is running a .060 over 400 block with a custom 3.79 inch stroke crank, longer big-block Chevy rods and custom Ross pistons that give him 13.5:1 compression, and nets 417 cubes. He's within the 15 cubic inches up or down rule, that's true. Except a "real" 421 has a 4.00 inch stroke, 6.625 inch connecting rods and huge 3.25 inch main bearings. His custom 400 crank has more-like-it-3 inch mains, and a shorter 3.79 inch stroke that has much less friction, and allows it to rev up like a 350 Chevy, and the longer rods give it more torque everywhere under the curve-even more than a "regular" 421 would have. He's running ported and polished 6X heads off a '78 Trans-Am. If you don't know Pontiacs-the "6X" heads are actually the best factory heads to have except for the ultra-rare Ram Air IV, 455HO or 455 SD heads. They have big, open combustion chambers, and 2.11 / 1.77 intake and exhaust valves. Believe me- these flow WAY more air and fuel than the closed-"bathtub" chamber, stock 421 heads with 1.96 / 1.66 valves!!!  He's running a ported Offenhauser dual-quad intake with two 750 Edelbrocks on it. ( Original "Type" remember?) He's running a huge Crower solid lifter cam, a 4-speed, and 4.88:1 gears. He pops the clutch at 4,500 rpm and shifts at 7,000.  Gee, think this'll go faster than a stock 10.75:1, stock crank, bathtub headed, 3.42:1 or 4.30:1 geared 421 Catalina, Gran Prix or 2+2 that's all done in by 5,500??  You think?  I love a good "sleeper" as much as the next guy-I told you my buddy and I had a blast torturing Camaros and Mustangs with his 401 Gremlin, and my 400 Ventura. But don't tell me that these mega-buck cars are "basically" stock. How? because their full-bodied and have an iron block and heads?  I just that think "Stock" needs to mean something a little closer to stock, that's all.  Mastermind