Some of Pro Stock’s veteran fraternity believes once NASCAR adopts electronic fuel injection in 2012, the NHRA won’t be far behind.

Warren Johnson is one of those who can see the major move on the factory hot rod horizon.

“NHRA will certainly follow,” Johnson explained. “They certainly tried the truck program. That didn’t pan out.”

Johnson, who has described the Pro Stock as not as exciting as it used to be, believes such a move could lend the missing action to the eliminator.

Some of Pro Stock’s veteran fraternity believes once NASCAR adopts electronic fuel injection in 2012, the NHRA won’t be far behind.

Warren Johnson is one of those who can see the major move on the factory hot rod horizon.

“NHRA will certainly follow,” Johnson explained. “They certainly tried the truck program. That didn’t pan out.”

Johnson, who has described the Pro Stock as not as exciting as it used to be, believes such a move could lend the missing action to the eliminator.

“It would bring back some of that excitement,” Johnson admitted. “If anything it would bring the class back to being somewhat up to date.”

Bringing in EFI would eliminate the need for hood scoops and return the cars to a more stock appearing configuration.

“Of the current professional cars, our Pro Stocker best resemble what you are going to drive on the street,” Johnson said. “Maybe that would be an attraction for the spectators.”

Johnson is known as the Professor of Pro Stock for his penchant to analyze situations and wring every ounce of obtainable horsepower out of an engine.

“The advancement of every class in drag racing is only limited to the amount of thought and effort put in by every competitor,” explained Johnson. “Certainly the gains today are marginal as compared to 20 years ago. But, because of that, you have to work a lot harder and think a LOT harder.”

“You have to work on it from front to back and side-to-side, not necessarily more time on the dyno.”

As for advancement, Johnson has three more years of use, out of five mandated by the  rulebook, for his Pontiac GXP in NHRA Pro Stock.

“We are already two years into that and have a good, solid three years left,” Johnson said. “By that time, who knows where the GM body will go. We have the Camaro. But, at this time, it really doesn’t look like a good race car. If that’s what we need to use in the future then so be it.”

Bear in mind, Ford’s Mustang wasn’t a good aerodynamic choice when the body style was introduced without factory support. The NHRA allowed a revision of the body style to bring the Mustang into line aerodynamically with the GM and Mopar body styles.

“The NHRA’s tech department looked at it with what I call a “box theory” where the width is set, the width is set … the length is somewhat debatable. There is a set overhang, set width and set height. The frontal area of these cars are the same. The shape is efficient on most of these vehicles. You have to realize the factories are utilizing these vehicles in their production form and they have to have decent aerodynamics for fuel efficiency. That plays a part in it. Most of the cars are aerodynamically alike when compared to ten years ago.”

Johnson understands the fans need to be able to recognize the cars and cheer for their favorite manufacturer.

“Fans need to be able to identify with the cars out there, a problem NASCAR has,” said Johnson. “With the Car of Tomorrow all they did was change headlight graphics and the name on the windshield. People either cheer for the vehicle or the driver. That’s the only two they cheer for … they don’t cheer for the NHRA.

“Each driver has an identity but if the cars become vanilla then we have a problem.”

{source}
<div style="float:left; padding:5px;">
<script type="text/javascript">
sr_adspace_id = 2000000613807;
sr_adspace_width = 300;
sr_adspace_height = 250;
sr_ad_new_window = true;
sr_adspace_type = "graphic";
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ad.afy11.net/srad.js?azId=2000000613807">
</script></div>

<div style="padding:5px;"><script type="text/javascript">
google_ad_client = "pub-8044869477733334";
/* 300x250, created 4/3/09 */
google_ad_slot = "2028912167";
google_ad_width = 300;
google_ad_height = 250;
</script>
<script src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
</div>{/source}