Let’s state right at the
outset that there are innovative tuners and builders, and then there are the
likes of men like Austin Coil and Alan Johnson.
They are, by any measuring stick you can come up with, ahead of the
curve. We mean no disrespect towards
anyone when we say that, because we know a couple of dozen guys out there who
are, whether anyone likes to admit it or not, infinitely sharper than the tech
inspectors charged with keeping them honest.
The championships that
Johnson and Coil have won are proof positive of their respective talents. We said it in our coverage of the ’07 Finals
and again after the Winternationals:
Alan Johnson is a genius.
But – and this is
important – Johnson is also a smart businessman. Alan Johnson Performance Engineering, located
in the hinterlands of
produces a substantial line of must-have hardware, including cylinder
heads. Johnson realized long ago that no
matter how brilliant his innovations, if he failed to share those goodies with
his clientele there would be no clientele.
No clientele, no business.
True, Johnson must be at
or very near the top of the highest paid tuners list, as well he should
be. The record he’s amassed is proof
positive of his skills, and while there seems no end in sight for his brilliant
trackside career, there’s probably going to come a day when he’d prefer a less
hectic lifestyle, and that’s when he’ll be most appreciative of the way he’s
operated AJPE.
Let’s state right at the
outset that there are innovative tuners and builders, and then there are the
likes of men like Austin Coil and Alan Johnson.
They are, by any measuring stick you can come up with, ahead of the
curve. We mean no disrespect towards
anyone when we say that, because we know a couple of dozen guys out there who
are, whether anyone likes to admit it or not, infinitely sharper than the tech
inspectors charged with keeping them honest.
The championships that
Johnson and Coil have won are proof positive of their respective talents. We said it in our coverage of the ’07 Finals
and again after the Winternationals:
Alan Johnson is a genius.
But – and this is
important – Johnson is also a smart businessman. Alan Johnson Performance Engineering, located
in the hinterlands of
produces a substantial line of must-have hardware, including cylinder
heads. Johnson realized long ago that no
matter how brilliant his innovations, if he failed to share those goodies with
his clientele there would be no clientele.
No clientele, no business.
True, Johnson must be at
or very near the top of the highest paid tuners list, as well he should
be. The record he’s amassed is proof
positive of his skills, and while there seems no end in sight for his brilliant
trackside career, there’s probably going to come a day when he’d prefer a less
hectic lifestyle, and that’s when he’ll be most appreciative of the way he’s
operated AJPE.
At the season-opening
Winternationals Johnson outfitted the Tony Schumacher-driven, Army-sponsored
Top Fuel car that would go on to win the race with a brand new set of what are
being titled Stage VI heads. Theirs was
the only car in the pits thus equipped, and while they did win the race, their
performances were not the best of the weekend.
By milliseconds, Schumacher’s final round 4.499 was eclipsed by Antron
Brown’s 4.495 qualifier and teammate Hot Rod Fuller’s first round 4.494.
Following the event there
was a mini-uproar from rival tuners and team owners, several of whom claimed
first that Johnson’s heads hadn’t been given the green light to appear in
competition by NHRA, and later amended their complaints along financial
lines. Their contention was that the
configuration of the new heads, which feature raised exhaust ports, among other
things, were a needless increase in the costs of racing at a time when holding
things in check seems more important than ever before.
Addressing the first
issue, Johnson had a letter of approval from the NHRA Tech Department prior to
the opening of the Winternationals, so that complaint was immediately
discarded. The second issue is a bit
more complicated.
On the off chance you’re
unfamiliar with how the NHRA has been addressing the issue of new racing hardware
in the last 10 years or so, there’s been a more or less across the boards
moratorium on anything that’s viewed as potentially increasing the costs of
racing. That moratorium also includes
anything the NHRA deems to be a performance-improver. In case you’re naïve enough to still believe
that drag racing is supposed to be about unlimited innovation, that concept
went out the window decades ago when aluminum clutch cans were outlawed and
steel cans mandated in their place. Then
came minimum weights, and far too much more to even begin talking about
here. The point is that drag racing has,
of necessity, become an endeavor in which rules have had to be implemented to
contain things. Were the sport to be as
wide open as it was during its formative years it would simply cease to exist,
because those with the deepest pockets would merely “buy” their way into the
winners circle through their ability to experiment and build or buy the best of
everything. It wouldn’t be too long
before there’d be three- or four-car Top Fuel fields and probably no more than
a half dozen Funny Cars.
There are other factors to
consider as well. Neither Goodyear or
the NHRA is excited about the prospect of 340 MPH quarter mile speeds, and
frankly, the sport doesn’t need them to be exciting. Side-by-side races with speeds of around 330
MPH with 4.5 second elapsed times are more than enough to fill the grandstands
and increase television ratings. One car
going 4.399/345.00 sounds great on paper, but the potential negatives if there’s
any kind of equipment failure at those speeds is enough to make even the fans
with the hardest of hearts cringe with anxiety.
While money will always
play a factor in the outcome of any automotive speed contest, this goes beyond
one’s ability to buy performance. Some
of the better equipped teams in competition have the manpower and technical
skills to build proprietary cylinder heads that will flow like the exhaust on
an F-22 on afterburner, but if, say, John Force Racing or Don Schumacher Racing
were the only teams who had them, say goodbye to real racing. Everyone else in the class would be racing
for second place – or worse. So, while
the moratorium on new parts continues to impact aftermarket suppliers like
Johnson, it also holds in check what an individual team might be able to do on
its own, and like it or not, that appears to be good for drag racing.
In an effort to ascertain
the performance potential of Johnson’s Stage VI heads we contacted a leading
aftermarket manufacturer of both heads and engines. When we questioned him about whether or not
the raised exhaust ports would be a performance enhancer he would go no further
than to say, “It could.” He refused to state unequivocally that they
would, as he felt there were too many variables to consider to make that kind
of statement. He then went on to briefly
outline a cylinder head modification he’s suggested to one of the leading Top
Fuel tuners that’s not only within the rules, but that can be done with a hand
grinder in an hour or two at virtually no expense. Should this modification prove out – and it
does not include either intake or exhaust port relocations – performances may
very well increase without a commensurate increase in costs.
But, let’s address the
Stage VI heads specifically. Before we
even consider what they’re all about (and trust us on this, you’re not about to
read a highly technical dissertation if for no other reason than we’re
incapable of writing one!), let’s do a price comparison. Right now the AJPE head of choice is the
Stage V. A set of bare Stage Vs –
meaning no valves, no springs, no rocker arms, nothing but the heads themselves
– ring up the cash register to the tune of $6,475.
The new Stage VI heads,
also bare, cost (wait for it) the same $6,475.
So much for the argument
that the new heads are going to increase the costs of racing, although we’ll
grant that the heads do require different headers because of the raised
ports. However, as AJPE manager Chris
Barker points out, “Headers and things like spark plug tubes are expendable
items to begin with.”
As Barker says, “The
biggest change is that the exhaust ports are raised, and we’ve gone with what
Alan considers to be a more logical header flange.” The basic header flange design hasn’t changed
in about 20 years, but as exhaust ports continued to see some “movement” with
new head designs, it became almost mandatory to make the change.
Barker believes the
biggest change is raising the valve cover rail .5-inches. This means that the fuel “rail” for the down
nozzles that runs along the top of the head is now fitted through the end of
the rail with a bulkhead fitting. Up
until now most of the teams installed the fuel rails with a square fitting
they’d cut into the end of the valve cover rail and then had to seal with
silicone or some other sealer. Fuel
leakage was sometimes a problem, although most teams seem to have solved that
in recent years. If a piston was burned
during a run the increased pressure throughout the engine did have the
capability of blowing out that fitting, forcing oil directly onto the headers,
and thus generating one of those fire-spewing spectaculars television and still
photographers love so dearly, but cost team owners just as dearly.
Contrary to what some have
thought, this new head does not require new or different exhaust or intake
valves. The same hardware that worked on
earlier heads works on the Stage VI model.
“What you will have to have,” Barker says, “are new valve covers, new
spark plug tubes and new headers.”
When asked about a
potential performance improvement, Barker adds, “To be honest, we haven’t seen
it yet. Basically, one of the reasons
Alan did this is because he believes that since (NHRA) has gone back to 90%
nitro the raised ports will help cool the heads off a little bit.
“The architecture of the
heads in terms of valve sizes and locations remains the same as before, per the
NHRA rules. This was done primarily from
the safety and engine life standpoint, not performance.”
Barker also points out
that not every product that comes out of their shop works the way Alan Johnson
may have hoped it would. The Stage III
heads, for example, did not perform well for Johnson, so he took them off the
car he was working with at the time, yet the Kalitta teams as well as Larry
Dixon’s car continued to successfully utilize those heads well into the
introduction of the Stage V model. He
also mentions that during her final year of competition Shirley Muldowney’s car
was running 4.5s with Stage I heads at a time when almost everyone else had
moved to Stage IVs.
What usually happens when
Johnson develops a new product is that most of the competitors wait for him to
prove its worth before placing orders, and that seems to be the case again this
time. Only Johnson’s Army car will have
the heads this weekend in
although Tony Pedregon may test with them on Monday, after the race. As of our deadline no one else has yet placed
an order for the Stage VI heads – and they may not have to if current
performances continue to keep pace with Tony Schumacher.
