CompetitionPlus.com has learned NHRA, beginning with the 2018 season, is going to require nitro Funny Cars to run the same rev limiter settings that are currently being run in Top Fuel, which is 7900 RPM.
Glen Gray, NHRA’s Vice President of Technical Operations, addressed why the Funny Cars will have identical rev limiters as the Top Fuel dragsters next season.
“To curtail the escalation of speed in the Funny Car category,” Gray said. “Funny Car top speeds have increased by more than 10 mph over the past two years. While Funny Car speeds today are not an issue if speeds continue to escalate at this rate, we could have safety issues a few years from now. This is a proactive measure.”
Funny Car points leader Robert Hight, who pilots a Chevy Camaro for John Force Racing, presently holds the nitro Funny Car mph record with a speed of 339.87 mph at Sonoma, Calif., July 28.
The rev limiter change for Funny Cars was met with decent reviews.
“We knew this was going to happen,” said reigning world champion Ron Capps, who pilots the NAPA Dodge for Don Schumacher Racing. “The speeds are faster so we figured NHRA was going to do something for sure. This goes back to the same argument that we have with 1,000 feet versus a quarter-mile and that is most tracks, their shutdown areas, you can’t add on to a lot of these tracks, and it’s a safety issue to get these cars stopped. It’s not a matter that we don’t want to go fast, we would love to go 345 mph, but we just have to be able to stop.”
Capps offered this analogy to why Funny Cars need to reduce their speeds.
“I have said this before, it’s like sending a Space Shuttle crew up into space with no plan to get them back to Earth,” Capps said. “If there’s a problem, somebody is going to be in trouble and they’re going to get hurt and we don’t want to see that. I battle week in and week out with these competitors and I don’t want to see somebody get hurt and somebody will get hurt bad at some of these race tracks. The tracks I’m speaking about are the short tracks we go to, Pomona (Calif.), Englishtown (N.J.) and Reading, Pa., this weekend. If it was as cold as it was last year here in Reading, we would be flying and man, it’s a scary short shutdown downhill. I don’t see a problem with it (the rev limiter in Funny Cars being the same as Top Fuel dragsters). I would have been fine either way, I just don’t want to see somebody get hurt.”
Jack Beckman, who drives the Infinite Hero Dodge for DSR, also offered his thoughts about the rev limiter change.
“Essentially all that is happening that they are bringing it in at a lower RPM, I think it is 150 RPM sooner than when we would see a rev limiter now,” Beckman said. “Even though you can say it is the identical rev limiter as the dragsters it probably won’t have the identical effect simply because a dragster accelerates harder than a Funny Car. The balancing act is you are trying to limit mph without causing additional engine damage. On a dragster, if it does engine damage and pops the supercharger and you have potential of putting oil on the track which NHRA doesn’t want, but you’re not going to blow the body off the thing. The other important factor that I think made this feasible for them is the header change. I think the two go hand-in-hand. I don’t think tipping the headers up from 30 degrees to 42 degrees will make any significant performance limitation on a Funny Car. Courtney (Force) has run 338 mph with the 2018 headers on the car already. By tipping the headers up and making this rev limiter change you will probably will not see as a dramatic of an impact of driving at the finish line.
Remember it is not a rev limiter in the true sense of the word. It is an ignition retarder device. The rev limiter by definition prohibits the engine from revving past a certain point. The ignition retarder, which is really what NHRA has mandated, totally pulls ignition timing out which makes it much harder for an engine to continue to gain RPM, but it doesn’t mean it is impossible to have a Funny Car still run on eight cylinders towards the top end of the race track, it just means it is less likely.”
Tommy DeLago, the co-crew chief on Alexis DeJoria’s Tequila Patron Funny Car at Kalitta Motorsports, was OK with NHRA’s decision about the rev limiter. DeLago was the crew chief for Matt Hagan when he won the 2011 nitro Funny Car world championship.
“It is what it is,” DeLago said. “I would have rather had them take something else like it was discussed to take some of these blower inserts away because some of these teams have so many blower inserts to make the blowers so good that’s one of the reasons why they run so much speed, but that’s not what happened. Hey, it’s NHRA, it’s the best game in town and looking at some stuff after they came down with the rule, it looks like we’re going to hit the rev limiter about 100 to 110 feet earlier and it’s going ride on it a little bit harder. It’s going to be harder on parts when it’s on the rev limiter because it is going to want to drop holes easier and we’re going to have to work on our fuel curve a little bit more. I think we will be OK, but definitely, if somebody doesn’t adapt there could be a little bit more parts attrition beginning of next year until everybody gets a handle on it.”
DeLago also acknowledged the nitro Funny Cars need to have their speeds reduced.
“We’re going too fast,” he said. “I don’t think it’s the shutdown areas anymore because we shut off at 1,000 feet, and most of us have the safety boxes set up on our cars so that they shut off right there at 1,000 feet. It is either insurance companies for NHRA and or Goodyear getting worried about these cars going 340 mph. At some point, you have to start wondering, the tires look really good, and what I think has helped the tires is with the headers laid back we have all been able to run a lot less wing. Running less wing has put less downforce on the tire which puts less heat into the tire, which is obviously better for it. But, at the same time to, speed is not good for it either. I think they are doing the best job they can. Something has to happen.
Changing rules is something DeLago knows come easy.
“It’s hard to get everybody to agree on what to do,” DeLago said. “The problem I think we run into sometimes when it comes to what rules we change because everybody fights for rules they don’t want changed because everybody thinks they are going to lose an advantage as far as racing goes. I applaud NHRA for being decisive. I may not think it is the best way to do it, but I’m proud of them being decisive and making a rule and giving everybody a heads up on what the header angles going to be and what the width the width is going to be and what rev limiter we are going to have so we know before the season is over. Last year we didn’t even know what the header deal was going to be until a week before testing. To me that’s forward progress at least the communication level is falling in line. It also gives people a chance towards the end of the year to not buy any more headers. Take the ones that you’re running and get your run count on them, so you get your money’s worth so it’s not a big expenditure the next year to buy different headers because if they were junk by the end of the year you’re going to have buy new ones anyway no matter what angle they were. By NHRA making the rules and telling people ahead of time it gives everybody a chance to run out their inventory. You’re not wasting a bunch of money and I think that’s another smart move NHRA made.”
Veteran Funny Car driver Jeff Arend isn’t in favor of NHRA making changes to the Funny Cars rev limiters.
“I’d rather not see them do it because it is kind of going backwards,” he said. “Everybody likes the speed and I guess you can say they are probably trying to slow them down a little bit because that 340 mph is getting pretty close. I can see why they are doing, but I don’t necessarily agree with it. I think the Funny Cars going faster than the Top Fuel (dragsters), the supposed kings of the sport, they are probably not overly happy about Funny Cars running faster than Top Fuel (dragsters) is one thing. Is 5 or 8 mph going to make that much difference at 1,000 feet? I don’t know, but I guess they have to try and curtail it somehow.”
