Drag Racing Discussions > Altereds
How much power needed to run 8.60 in a 105" nostalgia type Altered?
JrFuel Hayden:
My Wisconsin partner and I raced The Gators in 1969-71, and the 1'st time I drove Jerry Newmans RED Top Fuel dragster which we ended up Div 3 TF Champion. The 69 race we raced our BBC BB/GD, which we won at the 69 U.S. Nationals, and at the 70 & 71 race we ran our dual BBC Top Gas dragster. Too Bad NHRA eliminated TG after 71, but we still raced our TG car at match races in 72, including at Jacksonville FL. Connie Swingle invited us over to Big's shop so we could fix our chassis. We liked GatorNationals track and event.
ChevJerico:
--- Quote from: JrFuel Hayden on January 29, 2019, 07:03:42 PM ---My Wisconsin partner and I raced The Gators in 1969-71, and the 1'st time I drove Jerry Newmans RED Top Fuel dragster which we ended up Div 3 TF Champion. The 69 race we raced our BBC BB/GD, which we won at the 69 U.S. Nationals, and at the 70 & 71 race we ran our dual BBC Top Gas dragster. Too Bad NHRA eliminated TG after 71, but we still raced our TG car at match races in 72, including at Jacksonville FL. Connie Swingle invited us over to Big's shop so we could fix our chassis. We liked GatorNationals track and event.
--- End quote ---
That's some cool history. Didn't know they had TF at divisionals. Are you guys going to the CHRR this year? On a side note I was reading about the Donovan engine. Why did people race them even after the 426 came out? When did Donovan's become obsolete for the big show?
dreracecar:
426 wasnt that good until the learned to throw a bunch of timing into it. 2 things that hurt the Donovan, was that it was a small company machining the blocks by hand and could not keep up with the orders and the bottom end main caps were a one piece girdle and you had to drop (35 bolts) it to check even just one bearing. I was not because the Donovan was a bad engine, in fact, its 100# lighter and currently is the dominate engine used in Nostalgia Top Fuel running 5.50's @ 260mph. nobody in NTF has gotten a 426 to work, NFC can get the 426 to work because they get a 2speed
JrFuel Hayden:
We ran a Donovan in Jerry's TF car in 73 , one problem we had was the Donovan's made bottom end power than the 426's, so we had traction issues.
I heard the same thing Bruce said 426's needed more timing [ more low end power]
And I think teams continued to race Donovans because they bought them 1'st.
I'm not sure when NHRA stopped racing TF at Div races, we quit racing TF when our sponsor got out of it when the oil shotage started in late 73.
Jon Hansen
ChevJerico:
--- Quote from: dreracecar on January 30, 2019, 08:41:46 AM ---426 wasnt that good until the learned to throw a bunch of timing into it. 2 things that hurt the Donovan, was that it was a small company machining the blocks by hand and could not keep up with the orders and the bottom end main caps were a one piece girdle and you had to drop (35 bolts) it to check even just one bearing. I was not because the Donovan was a bad engine, in fact, its 100# lighter and currently is the dominate engine used in Nostalgia Top Fuel running 5.50's @ 260mph. nobody in NTF has gotten a 426 to work, NFC can get the 426 to work because they get a 2speed
--- End quote ---
That's fascinating. I never knew that about the 426. Thanks for the info!
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