Hello Racers,

An interesting developement recently in relation to Stock Eliminator racers and the American DRAGCAR indexing formula has prompted this communication to area Stock racers. Hopes are that others will also find this interesting as well as enticing.

The DRAGCAR indexing formula was in fact originally created to make every racer equal with regards to funding available versus performance attainable but in early trials, Hot Rod Association (HRA) legal Stockers were annihilating the DRAGCAR formulated indexes. Since then the formula has been modified for low lift cams to bring Stockers in line with larger lift cams and I have been uncertain as to how well in line "everybody" is at this point as it has been hard to get many HRA class racers to offer their actual specs in order to establish a DRAGCAR index for them and ascertain how ell they would perform against the reformulated indexing equation. I can understand this relentlessness in Super Stock and Comp Eliminator racers as they are allowed to run any lift which works for them and may not want that information to possibly be published but in Stockers, the specs required to establish a DRAGCAR formulated index are not really secret or unavailable through much research of the HRA's rules and classification guidelines. The real secret to Stocker engine performance is undoubtedly the timing of the valve opening and closing events, and these are not specs that are needed, used, or asked for in the DRAGCAR formula.

As the author of the DRAGCAR indexing formula, I am frequently questioning it's reliability and accuracy and continually checking it over for flaws which will require tuning to ensure that all vehicles are indeed handicapped fairly and equally without any performance "loopholes" which would make for one particular trend in engine combinations becoming dominant over the rest. Ironically, Stockers were the first to reveal one of these flaws, as I have previously stated, and had continued to be a worry of mine in this area but as I have gotten to index a few more Stockers, they are seeming to be indexing quite equally and as of the November 20th DRAGCAR debut, something very interesting to me has come to light which seems to prove the DRAGCAR formula is working as intended. This revelation actually came about through a mere comment from someone regarding the performance of two cars which he is associated with.

In a conversation with this person, I stated that a particular racer (Racer A) was running very well. I was making that statement by reference to this racer's performance against his DRAGCAR index. The person I was speaking with quickly discounted my statement by telling me that Racer A's car was in fact not performing all that well as it was only running 4 tenths under it's NHRA class index while Racer X's car was performing at 8 tenths under it's NHRA class index. Coincidentally, both of these racers have actually been indexed with the DRAGCAR formula and here is where it really gets interesting. These two cars are not in the same NHRA class but they do run nearly the same ETs. Their NHRA indexes are, from what I could gather, anywhere from 5 tenths to 75 hundredths apart from each other depending apparently on how the sanctioning body feels on the particular date of the event, yet they do in fact run the same ET's. Conventional thinking would simply say that Racer A's car with the quicker index is just not performing as well as it could be and that more work needs to be done to find that additional horsepower, correct? Wrong! Conventional thinking is actually wrong and it is proven in this real example of these two cars with the DRAGCAR indexing formula. The DRAGCAR formula indexes these two cars at the same ET and would put them in the same class, and therefore they truly should only be capable of running the same ETs. Both of these cars have nearly the same size engine with the same size valve and close to the same weight with very similar size cams, yet their NHRA indexes handicap Racer A at no less than a half of a second quicker than Racer B while in reality, Racer A's car is actually at a very slight disadvantage with a .021" lower intake valve lift.

This revelation has gotten me to thinking that Stocker racers should find this quite interesting and even appealing, especially to those with the currently truly unfairly indexed cars. And it has also gotten me to thinking that a gathering of Stockers running on the DRAGCAR formulated indexes would make for a very competitive and entertaining real drag racing competition. So I am asking Stocker racers to consider this possibility and to, if so interested, relay this consideration to fellow Stocker racers.

Some things to consider regarding an American DRAGCAR Stocker race like this are; 1: Blown cars such as the new CJ Mustangs would not be included in this race. 2: It would only be open to naturally aspirated V-8 cars as I have not had many 4 and 6 cylinder cars run on the formula and suspect there needs to be a change in the formula to index those cars properly. 3: This would be an American DRAGCAR formulated index handicapped start drag racing competition having no-breakout rules where the first car across the finish line wins regardless of the under index performance.

How fairly does the DRAGCAR formula index Stockers? Here are a few examples of real Stock Elininator cars;

AA/SA '68 Mustang 428 c.i. DRAGCAR Index 10.70 / Best ET's 10.0's
A/S '68 Mustang 428 c.i. DRAGCAR Index 10.90 / Best ET's 10.20's
F/SA '67 Camaro 350 c.i. DRAGCAR Index 12.30 / Best ET's 11.50's
I/SA Late model Camaro 350 c.i. DRAGCAR Index 12.30 / Best ET's 11.50's
J/SA Late model Camaro 350 c.i. DRAGCAR Index 12.50 / Best ET's 11.80's

The American DRAGCAR indexing formula is not being promoted as a magic predictor of a vehicle's performance level but it was created to be a far more accurate estimation of a vehicle's performance potential than the conventional pounds and rated hp per c.i. methods which have for so long been the only standards used.

I'm always happy to answer any questions and hear voiced concerns or suggestions.

American DRAGCAR
Growler@USDRAGCAR.com