Smitty Racing 8.93 @ 154

Subman631 said:
Well if we have to exclude everything that is, "not a factory part" from our trucks, there is going to be a lot of slow trucks. :D
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yea i guess i didnt word that like i wanted, not meaning OEM just meaning that nothing came with anything like that on the front end
TravisG said:
Doesn't your truck have a license plate holder on the front?
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which truck are you talking about, i dont have anything that i race.
 
hummin cummins said:
I don't see a problem with the beam breakers. They are NHRA legal and there is a set height they have to be, which is 3.5" off the ground and no more than 44" from the center line of the front wheel or if its less than 44" it can't be any further than the furthest part of the car. The staging beams are suppose to be set at 2" and all the rest are set at 6". These were the guidelines I was given by the NHRA tech.I was also told .20 it the best your gonna get with one.
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There in lies the problem with the rule. So by those rules you can stick it out 44" from the centerline of the front axle. Now that would look like $hit on a pickup truck and would be called cheating by anyone who saw it sticking out that far. Most trucks are about 33" from the centerline of the axle to the farthest point on the front end, so you would be putting it out ~11" past the front of the truck, my stock camaro body on the other hand is 45". So as anyone can see the rule was written poorly but based solely on cars.

Now add to that the offset axle rule of 2" axle offset side to side and which front axle centerline are we to measure from? It's a game and it always has been and those who play it best win most of the time. Just because it's legal doesn't mean its right. As for the amount of time shaved off when your in a sport that measures a win or loss by less than .001, .20 is huge!
 
150 MPH = 219.99 Feet per second.
If the beam breaker is 3' in front of your tires, it will lower your ET by 0.0136 seconds.

100 MPH = 146.66 Feet per second.
If the beam breaker is 3' in front of your tires, it will lower your ET by 0.0204 seconds.


And if you're a slow high 14 second diesel truck running 88 MPH trap speeds,
88 MPH = 129.07 Feet per second.
If the beam breaker is 3' in front of your tires, it will lower your ET by 0.0232 seconds.
 
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hummin cummins said:
I don't see a problem with the beam breakers. They are NHRA legal and there is a set height they have to be, which is 3.5" off the ground and no more than 44" from the center line of the front wheel or if its less than 44" it can't be any further than the furthest part of the car. The staging beams are suppose to be set at 2" and all the rest are set at 6". These were the guidelines I was given by the NHRA tech.I was also told .20 it the best your gonna get with one.
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Diesel Tech said:
There in lies the problem with the rule. So by those rules you can stick it out 44" from the centerline of the front axle. Now that would look like $hit on a pickup truck and would be called cheating by anyone who saw it sticking out that far. Most trucks are about 33" from the centerline of the axle to the farthest point on the front end, so you would be putting it out ~11" past the front of the truck, my stock camaro body on the other hand is 45". So as anyone can see the rule was written poorly but based solely on cars.
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See text in bold above.

It can not extend farther than the forward most part of the vehicle.
 
hummin cummins said:
I don't see a problem with the beam breakers. They are NHRA legal and there is a set height they have to be, which is 3.5" off the ground and no more than 44" from the center line of the front wheel or if its less than 44" it can't be any further than the furthest part of the car. The staging beams are suppose to be set at 2" and all the rest are set at 6". These were the guidelines I was given by the NHRA tech.I was also told .20 it the best your gonna get with one.
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Read the above text again. The key word is in bold. So if you make it exactly 44" from the center line of the farthest forward front axle you are legal by the rule as it's written, regardless if it's past the front of the body work or not.

I do not like the rule as it written, but it is what they have done.
 
Agree someone please post the actual rule if what hummin cummins poarws isn't exactly how it is written. Reading that it looks pretty obvious to me it can be no futher then 44" in front of the center line of the front axle not to exceed the furthest forward portion of the vehicle if it is less than 44". It just makes common sense you wouldn't have a beam breaker sticking out front of the front of the vehicle. Don't see where you get what your stating at all Steve given what is written, I don't have a 2011 NHRA rule book either.
 
Diesel Tech said:
Read the above text again. The key word is in bold. So if you make it exactly 44" from the center line of the farthest forward front axle you are legal by the rule as it's written, regardless if it's past the front of the body work or not.

I do not like the rule as it written, but it is what they have done.
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Lets say the furthest part of your front end is 48"past the center line of the front wheel, the beam breaker can be mounted no farther than 44" past the center line of the front wheel. I figured all of could figure that out!LOL
 
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hummin cummins said:
Lets say the furthest part of your front end is 48"past the center line of the front wheel, the beam breaker can be mounted no farther than 44" past the center line of the front wheel. I figured all of could figure that out!LOL
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I'd make darn sure my car was low enough in the front end so the tip of it would break the beam and forget the beam breaker.
 
Subman631 said:
Agree someone please post the actual rule if what hummin cummins poarws isn't exactly how it is written. Reading that it looks pretty obvious to me it can be no futher then 44" in front of the center line of the front axle not to exceed the furthest forward portion of the vehicle if it is less than 44". It just makes common sense you wouldn't have a beam breaker sticking out front of the front of the vehicle. Don't see where you get what your stating at all Steve given what is written, I don't have a 2011 NHRA rule book either.
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What does the word OR mean?

Or | Define Or at Dictionary.com


You have to follow the 1st part of the rule and the second part of the rule? Nope! The way hummin cummins wrote it the word OR means you only have to fit the rule before the word OR, not the first half and second half. While I do not agree with the rule in the first place I have seen beam breaks placed forward of the body front and the track official said it's legal. See post #135 on what the intent was. For the record this has nothing to do with the times the Smith truck ran just the rule itself.
 
The way I understand it is if the length of your front end is 33" from the center line of the front wheel the beam breaker can not protrude past the furthest point of 33" (BUT) (OR) If your front end length is 48" past the center line then the beam breaker can only be mounted at 44" in front of the center line of the wheel. However I may be wrong in this assumption of the way the rules were described to me because I found this video and you can see for yourself it protrudes 10-12" in front of the car. Look at 6m 51 sec. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzhZvqRRAi4"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzhZvqRRAi4[/ame]
 
Big Blue24 said:
150 MPH = 219.99 Feet per second.
If the beam breaker is 3' in front of your tires, it will lower your ET by 0.0136 seconds.
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As the math shows... they are only good for about 15 thousanths at around 150 mph opposed to a vehicle that is higher than 6" in front of the tire. Not really relevant when we are talking breaking records unless of coarse you are only breaking the record by .015 :poke:


The only real advantage to one is if you are bracket racing anyway. They allow you to gauge your position at the stripe "nose to nose" as opposed to "wheel to wheel" and not get clipped by a vehicle with a longer, lower nose.

Regardless, they are legal in the rules.


Stripe takers - Yellow Bullet Forums
 
Well that video really has me confused but that isn't too difficult these days. I'm assuming the beam breaker that sticks out beyond the front is to level the playing field for those cars that have a short front end against those who have a long one since the starting line is set by the tires not the front of the car? As Steve said we kind of derailed this thread on Team Smitty's great record.
 
Slowpoke said:
Beam breaker or not...it still would have been an 8.
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Now see phil you had to go and take all the fun out of all of this, nothing else will be worth reading now!!:blahblah1:
 
You guys have one hell of a machine...there is no denying that. Glad I was not running it on that pass.
 
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