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Don Flanders unlimited engine ideas

This letter was sent to me from Don several years ago to get me to think and share those thoughts with others about his ideas.

Hi Ken,

This discussion about the concept of using an unlimited engine rule for non-winged sprint car racing as a cost cutting and publicity generating tool should be primarily directed to the professional sprint car engine builder for their opinions.

To be clear on what an unlimited Engine rule would be.

1. Any Engine Displacement or Configuration. (SOHC-DOHC Heads, large displacement six or eight cylinder small blocks, etc.) 2. Any Fuel. (Including Nitromethane and or Nitrous Oxide) 3. Any Aspiration. (With or without Blowers or Turbos)

Why would this work?

The current CRA/USAC competitive non-wing sprint car of today already has more horsepower than it can use due to the restrictive spec tire rules.

As an example, if you compare the quick time average at Perris Auto Speedway for 2001 and 2008 you will find that in 2001, using the softer, wider tread spec RC1 tire it was 16.672. In 2008 with the harder, narrower tread DT3 spec tire the average quick time was a slower 16.914.

The point is that the tire controls the amount of useable horsepower in non-wing sprint car racing.

The restrictive tires are the reason it would be so much cheaper to build an unlimited engine, you are not really building unlimited horsepower, you only have to build about what we currently have.

I believe that with unlimited engine configuration choices, the creative professional sprint car engine builder could come up with many economical combinations that could reduce the cost of engines to the owners in the 30-50% range.

Other potential benefits.

1. Does not obsolete current competitive 410 engines.
2. Potential market for converting good bottom end 360 engines to higher horsepower. (Head conversions, aspiration changes, light nitro loads, etc.)
3. Could open up many engine related sponsorship opportunities from the current speed equipment manufactures that are currently frozen out of sprint car racing.
4. It puts the low budget creative guys back in the game.
5. Could help decrease the 305-360-410 fragmented mess that is sprint car racing today
6. Tremendous potential for publicity and marketing of sprint car racing.

A. Sets sprint car racing apart from all other "Spec Engine Series Racing" like F-1, IRL, NASCAR, NHRA etc.
B. Gives the public the illusion of unlimited horsepower racing.
C. Could very well be the "Hook" that gets the youth of today interested and involved.

1985,"In Concert with the CRA/USAC series the CRA established an engine displacement limit for the first time in the club's 39-year history. The proliferation of drag racing based engine technology over the past five years caused a huge price spike on engines and component parts. The old iron-block 350 cu.in. Chevrolet was slowly replaced by purpose-built aluminum monsters now capable of 450 cu. in. displacement. Both USAC and the World of outlaws had already gone to a 410" limit and the CRA followed suit in an effort to stabilize cost and perhaps increase their car count as a result." -Buzz Rose

But, believe it or not in 1980 we had a thousand horsepower from a 560 inch big block
The horsepower completely overcame everything we could do but, when the Outlaws came up there the Big Blocks would definitely give them you know what, they couldn?t keep up, thats why the rule change. (410 Limit) -Ron Shaver

"Well, around here it was "run what you brung" and the cheapest horsepower at that time was the big block. They weren't the easiest things in the world to drive, but they put out raw horsepower. A little guy could go down the straightaway with anybody with a big block. They ran them, well, the whole way through that period of time. The small block was still 9 out of 10. I got my first aluminum big block in '78, when we weren't going real good. We got it for $300. It was an old ZL1 all aluminum block. We put sleeves and stuff in it. In '79, we beat the Outlaws with it. Then somewhere they tried... they kept fiddling with the rules. We started "run what you brung" around here under small wings. Of course, the Outlaws came along bitched our wings were too small. Then we went to the big wings, which was probably a mistake. But, for national unity, we did it. Two years later, they said our motors were too big. Now, you couldn't have it both ways. You know what I mean I told Ted Johnson that, you know... I said, "Look. What's good for you Outlaws isn't what's always best for us. Just remember that."
-Lynn Paxton

"Which brings us to the first year of WOO and Bentley Warren brings his dirt super mod to the WOO race at Syracuse NY, and whoops the WOO boys. Poof---the "outlaws" ban their first vehicle, no more super mods allowed to compete in WOO races. Pretty soon the "outlaws" were just another rule infused sanction."
-Bob Riebe

"It seems that racing always ends up with one dominate engine. I've always been a competitor, like to see different brands and different types of engines out there. My son was an apprentice and his project to be a Class A pattern maker was to make a six cylinder block out of my eight cylinder block. To make a long story short, we built a V-6, 429 inch Hemi and put it in a sprint car. The second night out at Ascot, we were the number one qualifier and the thing was very competitive. It ran good and sounded good, because it was different." -Nick Arias Jr.