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Superstock clarification

LemonWedge

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Can someone explain to me how a rear wheel drive Chevy cobalt with a small block or LS combo has a home in NHRA superstock, but a 451-powered Dodge or Plymouth B-Body does not?
 
stock car, stock engine. and then all discreetly modified
 
Its all in the rulebook. I think they are GT cars not super stock. just about 1 million different classes.
 
Yep, super stock GT classes, developed to get late model front driver participation. They allow rear drive conversions, but they have to use nhra legal superstock engine combos, stock bore/stroke dimensions, overbores allowed.
A 451 is a stoker 400, therefore not legal in any super stocker.
 
NHRA has always given the nod to a Chev combination. That's why I never went to "legal" class racing. In the brackets there was freedom to spend as much as you could afford and rely on your car combination and driver skills.
 
Nostalgia Super Stock you can run any cubic inch you want. The car just needs to look period correct.
Not that is what we are talking about. Just a FYI.
 
Nostalgia Super Stock you can run any cubic inch you want. The car just needs to look period correct.
Not that is what we are talking about. Just a FYI.

That seems like a wild *** class. Big buck stuff.
 
Not really big buck.Unless you have it to spend. I ran my 65 Belvedere 451 automatic in N/SS-E in St.Louis. It was a 12.00 second class.
The fun part was you run heads up with others in the same class.
Classes/Rules have changed over the years. I think they go from 8.50 up to 13 or 14 second in 1/2 second increments.
I have been away from it for awhile.
 
Not really big buck.Unless you have it to spend. I ran my 65 Belvedere 451 automatic in N/SS-E in St.Louis. It was a 12.00 second class.
The fun part was you run heads up with others in the same class.
Classes/Rules have changed over the years. I think they go from 8.50 up to 13 or 14 second in 1/2 second increments.
I have been away from it for awhile.

I've been away a long time to. Brackets were some tough racing, I expect still are. I won a race in Northeast Indiana on the way to Central Michigan, the $1000 in Indiana paid for the trip. Big names & cars from all over the country there. In Michigan big names again, I lost by .001 & .003 both days. That's bracket racing. Lost the next weekend early by .001. You just have to keep going.
 
Yep, super stock GT classes, developed to get late model front driver participation. They allow rear drive conversions, but they have to use nhra legal superstock engine combos, stock bore/stroke dimensions, overbores allowed.
A 451 is a stoker 400, therefore not legal in any super stocker.
I believe in SS Stock one is allowed to be .050 bored over. But stock stroke. So even a 440 would be just a bit short of 451. (I think .060 makes 451?) I looked into it once upon a time. The rulebook got a lot thicker for that class. Here is where shaving mgrams of weight here and there. And building to blue printed quality pays off. It's a car nerd's paradise. Finding ways to legally cheat for lack of a better definition?
 
I believe in SS Stock one is allowed to be .050 bored over. But stock stroke. So even a 440 would be just a bit short of 451. (I think .060 makes 451?) I looked into it once upon a time. The rulebook got a lot thicker for that class. Here is where shaving mgrams of weight here and there. And building to blue printed quality pays off. It's a car nerd's paradise. Finding ways to legally cheat for lack of a better definition?

Ya NHRA class racing was, and suspect still is a plan of how to "shade" the rules. Not my cup of tea.
 
You guys are making and missing my point to some extent. The GT classes make just about anything possible with the right car, but a car like mine (or most of ours) that is for all intents and purposes a “stock” type of effort, but simply because of the crankshaft in use (a factory stock piece none the less) isn’t legal. Yet I look at cars like the GT class Cobalts, and there is absolutely NOTHING stock about that combo, yet it is legal and owns its class. Just doesn’t seem right to me.

I wish we had a Nostalgia Superstock group up here in the NW. I’d tailor my car to that class if we had one.

I asked specifically about the 451 Doug, because that’s what I run, and while I’m having a blast running ET brackets, I’d love to have an index class available to try my hand at.
 
There was a west coast version of the association (drawing a blank on the proper name, old you see) but they folded. They used to run brackets and index races, as well as heads up classes. (I think Doug runs in the east coast version.)
I wish the left (and I do mean left) coast had a gasser association like Sega. I have at least two candidates I would start on tomorrow.
 
You guys are making and missing my point to some extent. The GT classes make just about anything possible with the right car, but a car like mine (or most of ours) that is for all intents and purposes a “stock” type of effort, but simply because of the crankshaft in use (a factory stock piece none the less) isn’t legal. Yet I look at cars like the GT class Cobalts, and there is absolutely NOTHING stock about that combo, yet it is legal and owns its class. Just doesn’t seem right to me.

I wish we had a Nostalgia Superstock group up here in the NW. I’d tailor my car to that class if we had one.

I asked specifically about the 451 Doug, because that’s what I run, and while I’m having a blast running ET brackets, I’d love to have an index class available to try my hand at.
My Duster with its SS hood and 451 is in the spirit of the Super Stock of yesteryear. But I already knew it's a non qualified. Even though it has a 74 400 block. Same year as car. Which I believe is one of the requirements. (Or NHRA approved replacement.) Our point is that engine size is just one of many restrictions.

ZomboDroid 27062021135616.jpg
 
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If you've ever looked inside a SS/AH Hemi engine you'd be speechless. Decked .200", lifter bores moved, ports raised, intake face of the head paper thin. Or Eddelbrock heads legal in stock for all makes. You can run a fwd Daytona,Lebaron, in S/S as well. We have lots of Stock Super/Stock associations around the Midwest and East coast that allow N/SS cars. None by you?
Doug
 
If you've ever looked inside a SS/AH Hemi engine you'd be speechless. Decked .200", lifter bores moved, ports raised, intake face of the head paper thin. Or Eddelbrock heads legal in stock for all makes. You can run a fwd Daytona,Lebaron, in S/S as well. We have lots of Stock Super/Stock associations around the Midwest and East coast that allow N/SS cars. None by you?
Doug
I known this is probably near impossible any where to get pictures of a SS/AH Hemi engine insides?
Any progress on your engine? Is the season a washout for you. Maybe late season testing? Miss your racing and commentary.
 
Still waiting on final machining now that we have all the parts. Needs hone, balancing, line hone, decked. Head is welded and has the seats installed, needs valve job with along with a few other items. The body is getting some touch up work and the new hood painted. This year? who knows.
Doug
 
The point is that most super stock is all about NHRA approved engine combinations. These are engine from any year that is approved. The LS motor you see in that cobalt is an approved factory combination from some other car. You just don’t know what that is.
Go talk to a car owner at a national or divisional race. There is a small weight and horsepower sticker on the window. Ask the car owner and he will tell you what year and horsepower rating his engine is. Most are nice guys and like to talk to you about their car, some are not don’t let them bother you, just move on.

SS/AM, BM, CM and SS/AS, BS, CS are different and I don’t know what they have going on. But it looks like big dollar go fast stuff with 99% front drive conversion cars. Maybe it’s what you saw.

Now you can run your 67 satellite in a GT class. So use a different year and cubic inch engine than what the factory put in it.
#15 qualifier GT/LA 1969 dart below.
https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCStory.asp?ID=354692&Filter=Year2019#indextop

You can run a factory super stock engine in a body it did not come in and be in a FGT class. See qualifiers # 49 is a Front wheel drive conversion and #53 is a 79 Volare.
https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCStory.asp?ID=358592&Filter=Year2019#indextop

so these are the drag pack, cobra jet and copo Camaro engine that race in FSS\A through FSS/J

look at this list of classes and cars/cubic inches on them. Plenty of rear drive GT cars on this list. Ask more questions. Don’t get frustrated. Lots of different things going on in SS.
https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCStory.asp?ID=355711&Filter=Year2019#indextop

at the bottom the combo is when there is only one car in the class they get combined. This is class eliminations only.
 
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