NITROUS ROUNDTABLE
of glue, which that tire needs. And they have relatively small amounts of
tire slip. With a slick, we need more tire slip. And by no means do I want
any of that to downplay what those guys did. Those guys did a phenomenal
job. Everybody – spectators and all of us in the nitrous world – we were
shocked that it was that fast. It looked like they kind of beat some stuff up
there, but hat’s off to ‘em. They did a great job.
PM: Marcus is a customer and he runs great. He’s got my stuff and
I’m pretty happy for the whole deal. It’s a huge deal to have a nitrous car
running that well over there.
But there’s a car that’s a hundred pounds lighter because of that radial
tire deal – the tire, no wheelie bars, stuff we would need to run here. They
don’t have to run a blanket, they can run all kinds of titanium – I could
go on and on and count you a hundred pounds that we have to have that
they don’t have to have. So you’re not really comparing apples to apples,
no matter what (promoter Donald Long) says.
You also have to have the track prepped for that. In other words, we
The allowance of the Pro Nitrous-standard 959ci nitrous engines into
NHRA Pro Mod has been discussed, but is it an option?
JC: I see it as an option because you’re picking up 60 cubic inches,
you’re picking up 150 horsepower and closing that gap a little bit. The
only problem is the crankshafts are so big on these motors. I don’t know
how well they’ll live stretching them that extra 660 feet. These things are
basically ticking time bombs. They’re so big and they don’t really want to be
spun that hard for that long. That’s the only problem.
Yeah, you can probably bring them in and they’d
probably pick it up two or three numbers, but at the
end of the day now you’ve taken an NHRA guy who
has his 903s and you’ve put him two or three numbers
behind. That’s the problem with racing, for me. Any
time someone wants to fix a problem, they just want to
make the racers spend another two or three hundred
grand. I think if you’re going to fix a problem, you’ve
gotta figure out how a racer can come out there and
race and be the most cost-efficient for him. I don’t
know that taking one of these 959-cubic-inch motors
and spinning them eight grand for a quarter-mile is
a good idea.
PM: I think we could work on it if (NHRA) would
finally make up their mind, but they’re asking me
what I think it would be worth. I told them I don’t
think it’s enough, but maybe we can work on that
combination to make it better in the quarter. But
the way we are right now, we’re locked in. You just
put two thousandths more nitrous and we blow ‘em
up in a 903. You’re only going to get X amount in it.
BS: Yeah, that’s not an option. What they’ve got to
quit doing is keep making them heavier. That’s the
big thing. I don’t really know what started the whole
kick on making the nitrous combinations heavier and
heavier and heavier, but that’s heading in the wrong
direction. It’s going to be really hard to run a 6-inch
stroke quarter mile. Yeah, maybe you will pick up a little bit – one or two
runs – but those engines are not going to want to run at that kind of rpm
for that length of time. It’s going to be very costly.
SJ: I think in the short term it will fix some of the car problem. I think
when you race in the Southeast where Pro Nitrous racing was born, you’ll get
more cars and get more performance. The maintenance cost of that bigger
engine is expensive. Those things are $120,000 apiece, so buying them
for those teams is expensive. I don’t know that it’s a viable option or not.
If they allow that, I’m going to go nitrous racing, I assure you of that. I
want to go nitrous racing now. I just need somebody to let me hold, like,
some government-grade nitrous car that’s NHRA-legal and let me go out
there and run it. I can fix all these rule problems that we have. couldn’t even race on that track surface with a big tire. It’s kind of a spe-
cialized deal.
SJ: The first time we took that thing out to test, we ran at Orlando.
That thing’s got a 959ci Pat Musi Racing engine in it. The very first run
that the nitrous stayed on, it went 3.69. I told Marcus Birt, “this thing
will run fifties, no problem.” He’s like, “what?! Are you crazy?” I was like,
“yeah, it’ll run fifties. I just need six or seven runs and it’ll run fifties.” He
told me there’s no way and I was like, “OK, I’ll show you.” So we went
up there and I think the fourth or fifth time we lined it up we went sixty
flat. I absolutely believed it would run that, and I believe it will run much
faster than that. I don’t think we’ve nearly seen the end of what that thing
is capable of once I get it wrung out.
What were your initial thoughts when you heard about Marcus Birt’s
3.604 pass? Ideal conditions, but what does that tell you about the potential
that exists with these cars?
CB: Outstanding job by everybody who did it. Typically, in the radial
world versus the big-tire world, if you compare the same car, a radial car
will outrun the big-tire car. There’s multiple reasons. The tire weighs consid-
erably less and there’s considerably less rotating mass there. And the track
prep is a factor. Typically at a radial race, the track prep is crazy amounts Engines have become incredibly reliable and it seems like maintenance
has eased up. What led to that improvement?
JC: For one, when we made this jump from 872s to 959s, we were in
uncharted territory – a lot more stroke, a lot more rod, a lot more cam-
shaft – and I think it just took passes and time to figure out where the
weak places were.
The biggest thing for me is probably fuel injection. What you can do
with fuel injection right now is unbelievable. It used to be that we would
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PAT MUSI
Issue 144
SJ: Absolutely not. I think that nitrous cars haven’t run their potential
or even close to their potential. They continue to get lighter and continue
to go slower and I don’t understand that correlation. I haven’t run an
NHRA-legal nitrous car, but I’ve worked on nitrous cars for a long time,
almost 20 years. I don’t think they’re nearly at their potential. I don’t know
why they’re not running faster than what they are.