Brittany Force 338 mph (1 Viewer)

Nailhead

Nitro Member
Obviously, congrats to Brittany Force, David Grubnic, et al for winning TF at Vegas. Her improving reaction times are noteworthy. My question for experts: Why does this team often have trap speeds greater than those of other TF cars, e.g., 338 mph at Vegas?
 
I was wondering about that too. Her 60 foot times are often just average and in this case the ET was average also.
 
grubby seems to have the ever elusive 'speed secret'..........is he getting to motor to drag down and lock-up earlier? giving up 600' e.t., but then still running
very competitive e.t.'s with killer top end speed? i haven't looked at incrementals of her runs. whatever he's doing, it's great when one car can find a slight advantage.
 
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Seems they are safe off the line, but 330' on they are getting after it and locking the clutch up sooner...........maybe its that infamous "Force traction control device" lol

This can only happen if the track is there

Looking at the live timing, you can see where they are consistently quicker and faster
 
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Seems they are safe off the line, but 330' in they are getting after it and locking the clutch up sooner...........maybe its that infamous "Force traction control device" lol

This can only happen if the track is there

Looking at the live timing, you can see where they are consistently quicker and faster
I think Mack Savage has a handle on late stage clutch management.
 
They need to be careful on the speed. If your speed shows 338 you are actually going faster than that at the finish line. Goodyear has said the tire is rated to 350 but they want a safe margin and they have no plans at this time of developing a faster tire.
Wouldn't want NHRA to decide they need to change the rules because of the speed.
 
They won't get penalized for hitting 340. Inevitably, it'll happen in the right conditions, but it's not likely to happen with regularity. These cars are buttoned down pretty tight on development now. Does raise a question though - how would race fans feel about these cars running the same ET's and Speeds in years to come? History tells us that we love watching barriers broken in drag racing.
 
I think T/F & F/C have been running the same for the last few years. I see F/C as getting quicker overall than T/F. I thought that by now, we'd see 3.59 or so in T/F. Maybe we will this year. I do think covid & all that had an effect on performance "just cuz". Even if the cars don't get much quicker or faster, they still put on a good show and that is what the fans want. I do want to see 340, just because that may be the last barrier to be broken MPH wise. I'd rather see T/F do it first cuz I've always been a dragster fan, but it would be cool to see both classes do it.
 
We would have already seen 340 had NHRA not nixed the laid-back headers. Robert Hight was admittedly swinging for it nearly 5 years ago at Brainerd, 339.87, and I've personally watched both him and Force run 338+ (with upright headers) at the Texas Motorplex. Cruz Pedregon screwed the laid-backs up for everybody....LOL
 
Lets all remember the 'x factor'...an 8500 rev limiter. So the past few years have seen what I think is a mechanical cap on speed. These teams have to have the perfect track for the whole 1000' to hold the power and even at that, the first 100-250' most of the power is taken away from these monsters so they don't blow the hoops off.

Btw, I look for those wet pipes near the finish line (rev limiter) and I haven't seen it that often in recent years. Crew chiefs have learned to work within that window. Just incredible.

That window is so small to run these big speeds, so huge kudos to the teams that can make it happen
 
Didn't Dom Lagana do it at an IHRA track?
Yeah, he had an extra 320 feet to do it.

I was there when Shoe went 337 at Brainerd in 2005, and once NHRA went to 1000' feet I thought BIR would forever hold the status of being the fastest track ever. How silly was I......

Just for the sake of conversation, on Tony's 337 1/4 mile run he went 277 mph to the 1/8 mile. Brittany was going 293 on her 338 pass in Vegas, and I don't think that's even in the top 20 1/8 mile speeds. There have been a couple 299 1/8 mile speeds in recent years.
 
Lets all remember the 'x factor'...an 8500 rev limiter. So the past few years have seen what I think is a mechanical cap on speed. These teams have to have the perfect track for the whole 1000' to hold the power and even at that, the first 100-250' most of the power is taken away from these monsters so they don't blow the hoops off.

Btw, I look for those wet pipes near the finish line (rev limiter) and I haven't seen it that often in recent years. Crew chiefs have learned to work within that window. Just incredible.

That window is so small to run these big speeds, so huge kudos to the teams that can make it happen
They can and do 'slingshot' past the rev limit a bit (it's 7900rpm) and tire growth allows for more speed without additional rpm. Still, if the 340 barrier is to be broken my money is on a funny car to do it.
 
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