nostalgia top fuel wheelie bars

[We Bad]

How can the front engine top fuel cars leave the starting line without wheelie bars?

[JrFuel Hayden]

My thoughts on that is N/TF are limited to 12"wide tires, so they slip the clutch more at the hit so they don't smoke'm, which in turn limits the traction,
 and the need for wheelie bars.
If you also watch Heritage A/FD, you'll see the injected nitro cars don't use bars either.

Jon

[rooman]

Jon hit it on the head. With direct drive and that small tire the NT/F cars slip the clutch pretty hard leaving--just look at the dust cloud that they leave behind.

Roo

[dreracecar]

besides that they are very front end heavy carrying almost 150# of fuel, drysumps, 20lbs of firesystem

[ricardo1967]

Just curious.. are there Powerglide cars in NT/F, or they're all clutched? (if clutched, how many gears typically?)

[dreracecar]

2 speeds are only allowed with a 426 engine, but cannot be automotive (OEM) based
Nitro hammers the crap out of the converters and you need the sliding of the clutch to get the pump speed up to give it enough fuel at the hit

[ricardo1967]

Thanks for the good info Bruce.