Hey guys, I'm looking for some guidance as I prepare to step up from the Safe Street Night scene. I'm interested in a fun level of competition, but admit to being fairly confused / uneducated about organizations and classes, which I feel is the first step to take before planning a car to compete with. My local track is Houston Raceway Park, an NHRA track in Baytown TX.

I prefer to stick with EFI, are there classes where it is allowed? I don't have room to store a trailer, so I expect to keep it "legal enough" to drive the 40 odd miles to the track. Other than a TGO get together, this is the only time I drive the car, I have it simply for fun.

Current / Project Car: '89 Formula Firebird, stock L98/350 TPI, 700R4, 3.27 9 bolt rear.
Free mods, Borla cat-back. Best et so far is 14.5, expect newly mounted MT ET Street Radials will improve that a little when I get home. No suspension work yet.

I like EFI, in particular the HSR style, but very interested in what's being discussed on TGO regarding single-plane EFI systems. Emissions Legal ? No, but recognized.

Current goals without a particular class in mind yet: A consistent sweet spot in mid to high 12's
I expect to stay with the stock ECU, with as much custom chip tuning as required.

Plans:

Headers
Suspension
Top End: Intake, Heads and Cam.
Trans
Rear Gears

My darkest area is the top end, so any advice there in relation to class?

Thanks,

Dave

 

I'm not sure, but I recall reading in CAR CRAFT a couple years back that the NMCA had some sort of indexed classes, such as EFI-14, which is you have to run no faster than a 14.00.

They profiled all the classes, and had a half page or so on an entrant from each class, and I am sure a guy with an Iroc running a bolt on L98 was running in that class.

 

Getting into specific classes can be more expensive than just running bracket races.

If you run in the above class called EFI-14, you need to find out what all the rules are and how it's run. If it's a heads up race then everyone will be running as close to 14 seconds as possible. It then becomes a reaction time race. If it's just a bracket race for 14 second and slower cars then anyone can win even if you have a 15 or 16 second car since speed means nothing in a bracket race.

The majority of all races across the country are just bracket races. It doesn't matter what kind of fuel system you use and other than a few safety rules, it's pretty well unlimited as to what you want to do with your car.

Once you start getting into high end EFI classes it can get real expensive to stay competative. Even NHRA and IHRA have EFI classes in Stock Eliminator. How about a 2002 Firebird with an LS1 running low 10's and EFI.

Your local track probably won't have any sort or weird classes. Normally it's just bracket racing. You'll get grouped into a class depending on your ET and not what you've done to the car.

 

Very good info, thanks.

Wanted to make sure as I plan upgrades I don't rule myself out of some group I'd later like to compete with.

Brackets are the target then!

 

Don't get me wrong. Many people love the thrill of a heads up race but any such race has huge restrictions on what you're able to do. If it doesn't then whoever spends the most money to make the most HP will usually win all the time. No thrill in that. High end of the scale look at Pro Stock. Very strict rules on what they're able to do. Top 16 qualifiers are usually within a few hundreds of a second. They're all running roughly the same ET. The one that dominates is the one who normally spends the most money. Of course the number 1 qualifier can also lose in the first round due to any number of reasons so it's not a guarenteed win. Even many of the so called entry level classes are getting so expensive to be competative that it doesn't become entry level any more.

Stick with brackets. You can do whatever you want to make a race car. Some people are happy to just race a 13 second car. Others are always finding ways to go faster which moves them up into faster classes which also increases their cost to maintain that fast pace. After a couple of years or so of competition, you'll know a lot more and maybe you'll find a specific type of class you'd like to race in. Then you can build a car to best suit that class.

You just can't say "I want to drag race and I'm going to start off in a funny car" Everyone has to start somewhere and the slower bracket classes is where it all starts. That's where grass roots racing is.

 

The answers here are right on target for what I was looking for.

I want a reasonably fast car to compete and have fun with, yet mild enough to drive to the track and back. It's a kick in the seat for me, and a good example to our six boys to keep the racing on the track. Most are following the example.

The bracket racing seems right, for cost, flexibility and fun factor. I have my target of consistent mid-12's, not too hard to achieve for a "moderate" hobby budget. And I can always go heads-up against my TGO pals on Friday Nights.