The injected nitromethane (A/Fuel) engine combination, the predominant configuration in the Top Alcohol Dragster category over the last couple of decades, was added to the Top Alcohol Funny Car category in the offseason, largely in an effort to promote participation in a class defined by high engine RPM and equally high costs. Former A/Fuel Dragster competitor Mick Steele was the first driver to tackle the combination in the spring 2023, and has since competed at three Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series events with mixed results. This weekend, Steele will make his national event debut with the combination, and he won’t be alone, as successful Top Alcohol Dragster team owner Anthony Dicero has also brought out a nitro-burning car with veteran nitro pilot Tommy Johnson, Jr. at the controls.
Last weekend, Steele reset the national record for injected nitro A/Fuel Funny Cars, a mark set in 1998 by Scott Weis at 5.74 seconds, by carding a 5.73 at just 235 mph.
“This is the very same engine combination that was in the dragster, motor and clutch-wise. But we’ve figured out that this isn’t a dragster…it doesn’t like the name tuneup, it likes different things,” says Steele, who has about 30 runs on his car thus far. “Part of the process that we dealt with were the rule changes. We started at 85-percent nitro, then it went to 90, and now 95-percent. So part of the challenge was that transition, as the balance of the car was different. Once we got the 95-percent, then we had a downforce problem with the rules package for the spoiler on it. When we’d get out there and lock the clutch up it would start spinning the tires, and when you’re going 200 mph and you start spinning, it’s an adventure, crossing lanes and taking out blocks. We had the Top Fuel wing on the dragster, because the engine wants the load on it, so NHRA gave us more wing and made the car much more drivable.”
“Up until last week we hadn’t been faster to the 1/4-mile than we had the 1/8. Once we lose our load in the clutch, the fuel system doesn’t want as much fuel, so we’re trying to lear how to burn the fuel. We only way we make power is when we burn nitro, and if we’re bleeding it all off, we’re not making power. Last week we broke that record, and even put it in a little deep, so it may have been a 5.69 or .70. It’s just been a process of figuring out what it wants and making it happy. We knew when we got into it that this was kind of how this season was going to go…there just isn’t anybody to lean on for information to make one of these cars run.”
The A/Fuel Funny Cars cross the finish stripe at roughly 6,800 rpm, a similar RPM to what an alcohol car leaves the starting line, so Steele says the combination — despite the high cost of nitromethane — is considerably less costly than a blown alcohol car.
“We ran a blower car 20 years, but without a supercharger, without a transmission, it’s so much more cost-effective,” Steele says. “They’re going through crankshafts, rods, valves springs. You have to feed the blower car so many parts just to make sure you don’t have any kind of catastrophic failure. We can get 100 runs out of a crank on this car. The rods, everything lasts longer.”
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