Keep Drag Week Unlimited!

"TheSpeedAmbassador" (thespeedambassador)
11/27/2014 at 17:41 • Filed to: drag racing, drag week, hot rod magazine, hot rod, racing, larry larson, fast s-10, s-10

If you haven't heard of Drag Week you should look it up right now. Here's a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to the 2014 results. It's billed as the search for the fastest street driven car and organized by Hot Rod Magazine. They drag race at 5 different tracks over 5 days. The cars have to drive between each track themselves. You are basically allowed to work on your car as much as you need to between tracks. Here's a description of the Unlimited class rules from 2007.

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Unlimited Rules At A Glance

The Unlimited class has almost no rules. As long as you have the required street equipment, you can run any chassis, engine, transmission, or fuel you want. If you could make a Funny Car street-legal and fit the basic street equipment rules, then it could probably run. Most of the cars in this class have full tube chassis, huge tires, and big motors with a power adder.

One of the fastest has been Larry Larson. He own !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . He won Drag Week with the same car for 5 years, 2008 to 2012. His car was very impressive in that it got consistently faster each year. In !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! it's average time was 7.97 seconds in the quarter mile. By !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! he was down to 7.081 seconds. His car was a full steel body car. He choose to sit out the 2013 Drag Week because of the fiberglass cars he thought were "ruining" the Unlimited class. But the recent arguments by Larry Larson and hatred of fiberglass bodied cars just seems a bit hypocritical based on reading the specs of his newest car (S10 truck). This is from the January 2015 Hot Rod Magazine. "He ordered a Pro Stock truck composite front clip, hood and doors from Hairy Glass, out of Jacksonville, Florida." Another note says "The truck's steel doors are replaced with carbon-fiber versions."

Now I'm just a bit confused as to what exact point he thinks a steel car is steel and not composite. In fact, I'm sure there are plenty of the slower street cars on Drag Week that have fiberglass hoods. How about aluminum bodies?

Now Larson's newest truck has run as fast as !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! at the Street Car Super Nationals.

While this is also incredibly fast, much faster than the current Drag Week champ, after reading about the modifications, running menthol and a completely separate fuel system, removing a lot of parts, and replacing by my estimation ½ of the body with fiberglass anyway, I'm not sure why Larson is spending so much time badmouthing the full fiberglass cars.

I think it's commendable that Larson has taken the initiative to beat something he disagrees with, but I'd like it even more if he didn't waste time complaining about things he disagrees with. Just because it's fiberglass doesn't make it less of a street car and it's completely legal per the rules. Underneath the cars are nearly the same, it's just the wrapper he disagrees with. There are 2 ways to make a car fast, make it light or make more power. He has chosen the more power, but making a lighter car is just as much within the rules. I say keep Drag Week completely open. Once you start putting rules on it it removes the innovation.

More ramblings from the Speed Ambassador at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

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DISCUSSION (7)

daender > TheSpeedAmbassador
11/27/2014 at 19:34

The truck is supposedly Larson's "Fine, I'll play it your way." answer to all the fiberglass cars in unlimited. Although it's still pointless to complain about fiberglass cars in a class that's called "unlimited."

93Miata > TheSpeedAmbassador
11/27/2014 at 22:31

You probably should read the interview with Larson at the bottom of this page: http://bangshift.com/bangshift1320/…

tromoly > TheSpeedAmbassador
11/27/2014 at 22:39

To be fair, most of the top guys in Unlimited is running dual fuel systems (Meth for track, Gas for street). And if you read the BangShift article from a few months ago, Larry basically said that the S10 is building a vehicle to the absolute extreme allowed by the rules, hence the removing of the gasoline tank, cooling system, door swaps, etc. when arriving at each track.

offroadkarter > TheSpeedAmbassador
11/28/2014 at 01:57

Last I checked I didn't think they were doing anything to get rid of "Unlimited". I read the 2015+ rules and saw no major changes there.

EvilSuperMonkey > daender
11/28/2014 at 09:57

Exactly, if you don't like the lack of restrictions in the unlimited class then run in a different class.....

Darksiede, now LS powered > TheSpeedAmbassador
11/28/2014 at 11:26

Maybe you should have really read more about Larson's Dime before going hypocritical on it. Everyone's been using composite front clips in the class for years. His truck still has the steel cab, and mostly steel bed in modified form. The doors are steel when on the street and swapped out for CF when running at the track. The truck is a true transformer, and he decided if they were not going to cap the rules, he was going to build the end all, be all vehicle to simply shut the class down.

DavePerko > offroadkarter
12/22/2014 at 12:16

Very few of you out there don`t know enough to even be expressing any opinion

on Larry Larson/his motives/his methods or his end game.Keep quiet,pay attention

or better yet,show him how its done.