www.laspeedgarage.com

It's official, JFR will be sponsored by Chevy for 2015 and beyond

http://www.johnforceracing.com/showanno ... -w.cfm?n=1

Well, hell. I hate to start pulling against someone I always pulled for, but it is gonna happen.

Good for John Force. He found a new sponsor when Ford dropped him and his racing enterprise will continue to operate. As for the cars? I keep thinking that all he will do is change the bodies on his funny cars, which really didn't resemble any Mustangs that I knew of, in the first place. And, all the rails are pretty similar anyway. So, I still might cheer for the old, modest, geezer, as I am sure that he would stay humble, as usual, if he could get another championship. One likes to cheer on the underdog.

Tetge wrote:Good for John Force. He found a new sponsor when Ford dropped him and his racing enterprise will continue to operate. As for the cars? I keep thinking that all he will do is change the bodies on his funny cars, which really didn't resemble any Mustangs that I knew of, in the first place. And, all the rails are pretty similar anyway. So, I still might cheer for the old, modest, geezer, as I am sure that he would stay humble, as usual, if he could get another championship. One likes to cheer on the underdog.

Tetge the Chevy fan.

A John Force fan, actually. I was disappointed when Ford dropped him. But, in truth little has changed since:

NHRA funny cars are not based on Ford Engines or Chevy Engines. They all are made from the same few companies. No larger then 500ci. NHRA funny cars are actually based off of the HEMI engines made by MOPAR (Chrysler) back in the 60's and 70's. Most teams use an aluminum version of the 426 Chrysler Hemi engine that produces an estimated 7,000 horsepower.

I was a big John Wooden fan as well, although I could not have accepted it if he had moved to USC. But, I come from a strong UCLA background and it is stronger than Chevy vs. Ford, which is really not even the case with funny cars.

It is the affiliation. The engines have been the same for a good while, but I think the hp number is a bit higher than 7k now.

As much as we change as we age, I can't imagine pulling for a car (any car) with Chevy on the car. But being a UCLA guy (I also forgot that!) probably gives one a different perspective lol

They sometimes say 10000 HP. And, sometimes less. Who can separate the hype from the truth, but, I expect that they have pushed for more HP with the 1000' strip since they run the engine less revs to cover 1000' than 1320'. The 7000 HP was a direct quote from the official NHRA site so I did not change it.

Tetge wrote:They sometimes say 10000 HP. And, sometimes less. Who can separate the hype from the truth, but, I expect that they have pushed for more HP with the 1000' strip since they run the engine less revs to cover 1000' than 1320'. The 7000 HP was a direct quote from the official NHRA site so I did not change it.

That would be typical NHRA. Very conservative. The same governing group that believes that it is more dangerous to run the 1/4 mile in a modern car than it is to take the same car around Big Willow at max speed.

With the wonders of the internet, I see the Funny Car wiki says "Horsepower claims vary widely—from 6,978 to 8,897—but are probably around 8,000 HP. Supercharged, nitromethane-fueled motors of this type derive their extremely high speeds from their torque, which is estimated at about 7,000 ft·lbf (9,500 N·m). They routinely achieve a 6G acceleration from a standing start." Actually John Force's website claims 10,000.

In any case, I will take the JFR website at face value, and the numbers are pretty overwhelming. "By any measure, John Force Racing’s domination of Funny Car drag racing over the last quarter century is unparalleled. Through the first 13 races of the 2014 season, JFR drivers had won more than 41 per cent of all the events contested in the NHRA’s Mello Yello Series (232 of 567) over the last 25 years." That is a record that fully reflects dedication, obsession, team skills and personal skills over a long period. Kudos for the past, and here's hoping that the act of painting Chevy on those team cars takes them off that level.

I would like to have been the proverbial fly on the wall when the decision was made to drop support at the highest level. Smells like bean-counter soup was cooking... I have not had the energy to dig out the explication of the decision.

Off to see if they set up a live webcam for the BH Ducati event, as I requested.

Ford and Castrol were shortsighted in my opinion. My dad used to say Speed Costs money, how fast do you want to go? He told me stories of racing for contingency money from Wynns oil. Force needed another major sponsor to support all of the development activities. A lot of the safety innovations sice the death of Scott Kalitta and Eric Medlen came out of JFR in cooperation with Ford

So, while I will not drive a Chevy, as a long time fan of John Force (Who started in a Chevy) I will continue to support him. 2/8/2015 will see me at the Winternationals

During testing in Phoenix this week, Brittany Force ran a 3.69. Pretty stout. 15 days to the winternationals. Can't wait