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Post by drphillips309 on May 13, 2015 15:01:19 GMT -6
Once it was allowed to cross over classes the average racer/ home brewed racer could not compete so those guys left the sport into other less stressfull activities In my line work i get to talk to several of those guys and most agree the sport has blown out of perportion for the average guy to even think about buying into the drag racing world Then add in tracks having seen less n less racers tech has become a honor system so as not to piss off racers and lose what they have Then let any car run in any class so the attitude for them is if they wanted to compete in their class they would have built a car for that class. So each track has had a helping hand along with racer who do show up n run see oppertunity to run 2-3 classes at each event Even the novice racer has been pushed aside to watch a super pro car run in their class Then we wonder why less n less racers want to even race Then add in the money it takes now days to have a competitive car is above what most make im a year I guess you are referring to me and my Pro experiment I tried?
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Post by dennismopar73 on May 13, 2015 15:47:58 GMT -6
I wasn't referring to any one in general
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Post by sg3526 on May 14, 2015 10:59:41 GMT -6
I spend about the same $ that I spent in the eighties. I have the tax records to back that up. That being said we don't race 3 days a weekend. Our cars are so much better and now we know our reaction times. One main problem in my eyes is young people don't have the drive we had when we started. Yes we spent every dollar we had back then. Younger kids have more places for their money. And being able to work on cars isn't cool anymore Kevin, I'm sure you can attest to this seeing that you and every other shop in the area are having issues finding qualified techs to do the work. Kids today just aren't that into cars like we all were when we grew up and I think a major contributing factor to that is the technology that it takes to operate the cars of today, in our day you could bolt on a bunch of aftermarket stuff screw in a fresh set of plugs and put in points and a condenser (yes I am old enough to have done that), today you need a $2000.00 scanner or a $1500.00 program on your laptop to tune your car so it has taken the shade tree so to speak away from kids today. A few years ago I was at a TnT at Gateway and there was this kid sitting in the lanes downloading his last pass and tweaking the tune up to see if it helped, I remember saying to myself then that racing as we know it was in trouble, and as Kevin stated working on cars just isn't cool anymore. When we were kids we were allowed to cruise around and hang out at the White Castle or Steak and Shake, now they run these kids off of these places and no one gets to just hang out and talk car stuff anymore.
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Post by chad378t on May 14, 2015 11:37:09 GMT -6
Ding...Ding..Ding /\/\/\/\/\/\
You hit teh nail on the head. It doesn't matter what you do to classes. If kids have no interest, they won't come. Back in the early days we did not have video games in social media to grab our attention. You can look at any mechnical program like autobody etc. in teh high schools and see the same drop. When I started, you could find cars to start with cheap. My forst was a 77 nova with a 305 and a paid $400 for it. Now those are gone and kids are left with daily drivers or sports cars that are out of their price range. It's easy to say "let's go back to the early style of the sport" but fond memeries of the past do not equal success today.
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Post by drphillips309 on May 14, 2015 11:49:55 GMT -6
Facebook and the dumbing down of America is killing us. Basic math skills that are needed in this sport are none existent in most people now. They have no clue how to multiply and divide and don't care . I my not be good at spelling but buddy you didn't want to tangle with me in math flash cards. I could lap the class multiple times before I got beat.
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Post by sg3526 on May 14, 2015 17:23:59 GMT -6
I have a few guys that come to my shop that are GM techs and they hang out and look at my cars and ask me why I don't put an LS style motor in and do Turbos or do this or do that and my response is quite simple, I look at one of the guys that I helped build a 404" LS motor to put in his 2002 Camaro, long story short he has been working on this project for a few years now and he gets really excited when he makes a little progress with it. I keep telling him that if he had put a carb and a distributor in his LS he would already being making laps down the track rather than waiting for this guy or that guy to come over and put a "TUNE" in it so he can drive it. Technology is great if you can do it yourself, if you have to rely on someone else you're screwed, hence the name of my race team
MMI Motorsports and the MMI does not stand for Mike Musgrove Inc. it stands for ME, MYSELF and I, cause I don't have to rely on anyone but me...
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Post by problemchild on May 14, 2015 19:36:33 GMT -6
years ago we call this team "Shade Tree Racing" and may go back to that even tho we now have a garage. We operate under the KISS princple, Keep It Simple and Stupid. Do not out think yourself and screw things up.
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Post by bartc on May 14, 2015 19:49:44 GMT -6
I have a few guys that come to my shop that are GM techs and they hang out and look at my cars and ask me why I don't put an LS style motor in and do Turbos or do this or do that and my response is quite simple, I look at one of the guys that I helped build a 404" LS motor to put in his 2002 Camaro, long story short he has been working on this project for a few years now and he gets really excited when he makes a little progress with it. I keep telling him that if he had put a carb and a distributor in his LS he would already being making laps down the track rather than waiting for this guy or that guy to come over and put a "TUNE" in it so he can drive it. Technology is great if you can do it yourself, if you have to rely on someone else you're screwed, hence the name of my race team MMI Motorsports and the MMI does not stand for Mike Musgrove Inc. it stands for ME, MYSELF and I, cause I don't hav3e to rely on anyone but me... Ha ha ha so true I have an 89 corvett with a moates interface and rotuner software. late 80 ecu are really arcane I got tired of tweaking it the cars great after it warms up and The humidity is between 45 and60 percwnt and the temp is around 70 .... usually a pain in the butt
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