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Comp Eliminator: Where the Variety Is
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By Jim Samuel |
Think Stock Eliminator or Super Stock and the image of a 1967 through 1969 Camaro probably pops into your head. Think Super Comp and you most likely imagine a dragster powered by the ubiquitous Chevy V8. But when you want to think variety, think of Competition Eliminator, for it is in that division of drag racers where you'll find the greatest variety of cars in drag racing. And while the traditional V8 engine is still king, Comp Eliminator also comes with a wide range of engines, including everything from a Buick V6 to a Subaru horizontally-opposed six cylinder engine.
The use of non-V8 engines peaked in the early 1980s when NHRA, NASCAR and other motor sports bodies were under pressure to set an example for fuel economy. But now, twenty years later, it's clear that the future never arrived but a significant number of racers – people like Al Ackerman, Frank Aragona and Steven Ambrose – continue to be competitive with smaller engines. For some, it's a matter of choosing the class that they believe offers them the best chance to win. For others, using a four-cylinder, six-cylinder or other engine helps set them apart for the pack. And for the rest, it's just about being different. One of the first racers to successfully compete with a smaller engine was Reading, Pa.-based Bob Kaiser, who won the NHRA Comp Eliminator national championship in 1989 with a V6-powered Camaro. After years of racing V8 engines, Kaiser got involved in the smaller power plants when Chevrolet asked him to get involved with its V6 development program. Today Kaiser continues to build V6 engines for racers such as Sal Biondo, but says that other than personal preference, there is little reason to run an engine with fewer than eight cylinders. In fact, when asked why anyone would choose a V6 engine now, Kaiser replied, “Why do some guys run roadsters?”
For Michelle Costa, a soft class index and having friends such as Frank and Joe Aragona -- who are known for running uncommon engine combinations -- were the reasons she started racing her “Lady Bug” Volkswagen-powered G/Dragster in the NHRA's Competition Eliminator division. But now that she's lost her index advantage by running more than eight-tenths of a second under the class index and taken a permanent CIC (competition index control) hit, Costa keeps racing her dragster because its fun, is more demanding and it brings her attention she would not receive in an ordinary car. “A lot of people look at the car and say ‘It's a bug motor with a chick driver',” said Costa. “It's a girl car. That's the reaction I get. Most people think my car is a junior dragster.” But no matter what the reaction, Costa's car is competitive every time she goes to the track for less money than it would take to run a car with a larger engine. She and car owner Rich Rose could run a C/Dragster or D/Dragster but “you can't be competitive unless you throw tons of money at it,” she said.
Driving a VW-powered dragster takes more work and more precision than the V8-powered Super Comp dragster Costa drove when she was learning to race at Roy Hill's school. “With a Super Comp car, you just put it to the floor,” Costa explained. “In my car, every gear change makes a huge difference in the performance of the car.” Another difference between a V8-powered dragster and Costa's “Lady Bug” is parts availability. “None of the parts on our care are VW made,” she said. “A lot of the stuff on our car is Aragona-made” at Joe Aragona's International Motor Shop in Plainview , New York . In contrast, parts for Chevy V8 engines are readily available from a number of sources.
Custom-made parts are nothing new to Steven Ambrose from Woodhaven , Michigan . Ambrose, who works for Ford Motor Company, runs a 300-cubic inch straight-six engine in his '23 Ford T competition eliminator roadster. “We used to take Boss 302 heads and braze them together to make one six cylinder head,” said Ambrose, whose car can cover the quarter mile in less than 7.80 seconds. Now, Ambrose and partners Bob Huettman and Rey Argenta use a billet head made by Alan Johnson. “The only real factory parts we use are the engine block and the front cover,” said Ambrose. “It's a real challenge.” But despite the challenge, Ambrose said that he put together a competitive straight-six engine for about $25,000 compared to buying a V8 engine for nearly three times that much. “We did it with a hammer and hacksaw,” he said, adding that he even used the barter system to get a custom-made crankshaft from builder John Kaminski. “He (Kaminski) is a real crankshaft expert,” Ambrose said. “I helped him raise a barn and he made us a crankshaft.”
As often happens with anything out of the ordinary, an informal fraternity of racers who use straight six engines has developed on the racing circuit. “There are a few of us that run inline engines,” said Ambrose. “We know each other and we share the information we have.” Doug Engels, of Watertown , South Dakota , also has a six-cylinder engine in his D/Econodragster. But unlike Ambrose, Engel's six-cylinder power plant is a Chevy V6. And unlike Kaiser, Engel's Chevy V6 is the odd-firing variety. “A lot of people claim that the odd-fire V6 engine shakes but I haven't really had that problem,” said Engels. Most V8 engines are even-firing engines, meaning that pistons fire four times – or every 90 degrees – with each rotation of the crankshaft. Because they have six cylinders, the first V6 engines fired at 75, 150, 75 and 150 degrees with each revolution of the crankshaft. In passenger cars, the odd-firing engines often caused excessive vibration so engineers developed an even-firing version of the V6 engine. While he has not noticed excessive vibration from his engine, Engels said that some ordinary tuning procedures are more difficult with his odd-firing V6 Chevy. “Just adjusting the valves on an odd-firing V6 is different than on a V8,” he said. “It takes two people to set the valves. Someone has to be there to hold the cylinders in place.” With a V8 engine, one person can position the cylinders by manually turning the crankshaft, then leaving the cylinders in place while he or she sets the valves. But with an odd-firing V6, the unbalanced piston layout often causes the pistons to slide out of position unless someone holds the crankshaft in place. Another drawback of the V6 is that they go through a lot of head gaskets and timing belts compared to their V8 counterparts. “V6s are really hard on the head gaskets,” Engels said, adding that “They need a new timing belt every 20 runs or so. Timing belts are expensive.” Despite the drawbacks, Engels said that enjoys racing a V6-powered dragster because “it's something that sets me apart from the crowd.” Engel used to race a V8-powered A/Econo Altered but started looking for something different when David Rampy began to dominate that class. “I looked for something that was not so commonplace,” he said. “I wanted a class in which I could control my own destiny.” Like Costa, Engel said that driving performance is more critical with a V6-powered car than with one powered by a V8 engine. “There's no room for error,” he said. “The first 330 feet are critical. My 60-foot times average 1.02 seconds and I've been as quick as 1.00 flat. A lot of A and B cars struggle to runt hat quickly.”
One of the most unusual combinations engine and chassis combinations belongs to Loren Broady of Salem , New Hampshire . Instead of using an automotive engine in his 187-inch wheelbase dragster chassis, Broady dropped in a three-cylinder Arctic Cat snowmobile engine, coupled to the rear axle by an automatic snowmobile transmission. To make him even more different, Broady's dragster has no reverse gear but is instead equipped with front brakes so he can do burnouts without crossing the starting line. How did Broady end up with such an odd engine in his dragster? Put simply, because it was there. A long-time snowmobile drag racer, Broady built the engine in 1990 to race on the snow. But years of snowmobile racing left him looking for a warmer racing environment, so he decided to take the engine and transmission and put it into a dragster chassis.
“I had the idea of doing this long ago,” said Broady. “From the roll cage forward, this car is basically the same as a car with a big block Chevy engine.” Broady races the car in the IHRA's ET Box and Quick Rod divisions. The 1050 cubic centimeter snowmobile engine develops 275 horsepower when it is normally aspirated and puts out about 300 horsepower when Broady uses nitrous oxide. “It runs more consistent at around 9.70 seconds without the nitrous,” he said, adding that the car has raced the quarter mile in 8.70 seconds at 152 miles per hour with nitrous oxide. No matter what their reasons for racing with the engines they use, drivers who run engines that are not V8s stand out from the crowd. For Costa, it's a chance to reach a group of fans that might not ordinarily pay attention to her. “Little girls come up to me all the time and say they like my car,” Costa said, who added that she enjoys meeting the girls and being seen as a role model by them. For Broady, it's a chance to stand out in crowded field. “I enjoy listening to what people say about the car,” he said. “Everybody has dragsters but nobody talks about them.” Photos – NOTE – since we have so few photo for this story, the Lead Photo and photo 04 are the same.
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