Let’s state right at the outset that there are innovative tuners and builders, and then there are the likes of men like Austin Coil and Alan Johnson.  They are, by any measuring stick you can come up with, ahead of the curve.  We mean no disrespect towards anyone when we say that, because we know a couple of dozen guys out there who are, whether anyone likes to admit it or not, infinitely sharper than the tech inspectors charged with keeping them honest.

The championships that Johnson and Coil have won are proof positive of their respective talents.  We said it in our coverage of the ’07 Finals and again after the Winternationals:  Alan Johnson is a genius.

But – and this is important – Johnson is also a smart businessman.  Alan Johnson Performance Engineering, located in the hinterlands of California, produces a substantial line of must-have hardware, including cylinder heads.  Johnson realized long ago that no matter how brilliant his innovations, if he failed to share those goodies with his clientele there would be no clientele.  No clientele, no business.

True, Johnson must be at or very near the top of the highest paid tuners list, as well he should be.  The record he’s amassed is proof positive of his skills, and while there seems no end in sight for his brilliant trackside career, there’s probably going to come a day when he’d prefer a less hectic lifestyle, and that’s when he’ll be most appreciative of the way he’s operated AJPE.

Let’s state right at the outset that there are innovative tuners and builders, and then there are the likes of men like Austin Coil and Alan Johnson.  They are, by any measuring stick you can come up with, ahead of the curve.  We mean no disrespect towards anyone when we say that, because we know a couple of dozen guys out there who are, whether anyone likes to admit it or not, infinitely sharper than the tech inspectors charged with keeping them honest.

The championships that Johnson and Coil have won are proof positive of their respective talents.  We said it in our coverage of the ’07 Finals and again after the Winternationals:  Alan Johnson is a genius.

But – and this is important – Johnson is also a smart businessman.  Alan Johnson Performance Engineering, located in the hinterlands of California, produces a substantial line of must-have hardware, including cylinder heads.  Johnson realized long ago that no matter how brilliant his innovations, if he failed to share those goodies with his clientele there would be no clientele.  No clientele, no business.

True, Johnson must be at or very near the top of the highest paid tuners list, as well he should be.  The record he’s amassed is proof positive of his skills, and while there seems no end in sight for his brilliant trackside career, there’s probably going to come a day when he’d prefer a less hectic lifestyle, and that’s when he’ll be most appreciative of the way he’s operated AJPE.

At the season-opening Winternationals Johnson outfitted the Tony Schumacher-driven, Army-sponsored Top Fuel car that would go on to win the race with a brand new set of what are being titled Stage VI heads.  Theirs was the only car in the pits thus equipped, and while they did win the race, their performances were not the best of the weekend.  By milliseconds, Schumacher’s final round 4.499 was eclipsed by Antron Brown’s 4.495 qualifier and teammate Hot Rod Fuller’s first round 4.494.

Following the event there was a mini-uproar from rival tuners and team owners, several of whom claimed first that Johnson’s heads hadn’t been given the green light to appear in competition by NHRA, and later amended their complaints along financial lines.  Their contention was that the configuration of the new heads, which feature raised exhaust ports, among other things, were a needless increase in the costs of racing at a time when holding things in check seems more important than ever before.

Addressing the first issue, Johnson had a letter of approval from the NHRA Tech Department prior to the opening of the Winternationals, so that complaint was immediately discarded.  The second issue is a bit more complicated.

On the off chance you’re unfamiliar with how the NHRA has been addressing the issue of new racing hardware in the last 10 years or so, there’s been a more or less across the boards moratorium on anything that’s viewed as potentially increasing the costs of racing.  That moratorium also includes anything the NHRA deems to be a performance-improver.  In case you’re naïve enough to still believe that drag racing is supposed to be about unlimited innovation, that concept went out the window decades ago when aluminum clutch cans were outlawed and steel cans mandated in their place.  Then came minimum weights, and far too much more to even begin talking about here.  The point is that drag racing has, of necessity, become an endeavor in which rules have had to be implemented to contain things.  Were the sport to be as wide open as it was during its formative years it would simply cease to exist, because those with the deepest pockets would merely “buy” their way into the winners circle through their ability to experiment and build or buy the best of everything.  It wouldn’t be too long before there’d be three- or four-car Top Fuel fields and probably no more than a half dozen Funny Cars.

There are other factors to consider as well.  Neither Goodyear or the NHRA is excited about the prospect of 340 MPH quarter mile speeds, and frankly, the sport doesn’t need them to be exciting.  Side-by-side races with speeds of around 330 MPH with 4.5 second elapsed times are more than enough to fill the grandstands and increase television ratings.  One car going 4.399/345.00 sounds great on paper, but the potential negatives if there’s any kind of equipment failure at those speeds is enough to make even the fans with the hardest of hearts cringe with anxiety.

While money will always play a factor in the outcome of any automotive speed contest, this goes beyond one’s ability to buy performance.  Some of the better equipped teams in competition have the manpower and technical skills to build proprietary cylinder heads that will flow like the exhaust on an F-22 on afterburner, but if, say, John Force Racing or Don Schumacher Racing were the only teams who had them, say goodbye to real racing.  Everyone else in the class would be racing for second place – or worse.  So, while the moratorium on new parts continues to impact aftermarket suppliers like Johnson, it also holds in check what an individual team might be able to do on its own, and like it or not, that appears to be good for drag racing.

In an effort to ascertain the performance potential of Johnson’s Stage VI heads we contacted a leading aftermarket manufacturer of both heads and engines.  When we questioned him about whether or not the raised exhaust ports would be a performance enhancer he would go no further than to say, “It could.”  He refused to state unequivocally that they would, as he felt there were too many variables to consider to make that kind of statement.  He then went on to briefly outline a cylinder head modification he’s suggested to one of the leading Top Fuel tuners that’s not only within the rules, but that can be done with a hand grinder in an hour or two at virtually no expense.  Should this modification prove out – and it does not include either intake or exhaust port relocations – performances may very well increase without a commensurate increase in costs.

But, let’s address the Stage VI heads specifically.  Before we even consider what they’re all about (and trust us on this, you’re not about to read a highly technical dissertation if for no other reason than we’re incapable of writing one!), let’s do a price comparison.  Right now the AJPE head of choice is the Stage V.  A set of bare Stage Vs – meaning no valves, no springs, no rocker arms, nothing but the heads themselves – ring up the cash register to the tune of $6,475.

The new Stage VI heads, also bare, cost (wait for it) the same $6,475.

So much for the argument that the new heads are going to increase the costs of racing, although we’ll grant that the heads do require different headers because of the raised ports.  However, as AJPE manager Chris Barker points out, “Headers and things like spark plug tubes are expendable items to begin with.”

As Barker says, “The biggest change is that the exhaust ports are raised, and we’ve gone with what Alan considers to be a more logical header flange.”  The basic header flange design hasn’t changed in about 20 years, but as exhaust ports continued to see some “movement” with new head designs, it became almost mandatory to make the change.

Barker believes the biggest change is raising the valve cover rail .5-inches.  This means that the fuel “rail” for the down nozzles that runs along the top of the head is now fitted through the end of the rail with a bulkhead fitting.  Up until now most of the teams installed the fuel rails with a square fitting they’d cut into the end of the valve cover rail and then had to seal with silicone or some other sealer.  Fuel leakage was sometimes a problem, although most teams seem to have solved that in recent years.  If a piston was burned during a run the increased pressure throughout the engine did have the capability of blowing out that fitting, forcing oil directly onto the headers, and thus generating one of those fire-spewing spectaculars television and still photographers love so dearly, but cost team owners just as dearly.

Contrary to what some have thought, this new head does not require new or different exhaust or intake valves.  The same hardware that worked on earlier heads works on the Stage VI model.  “What you will have to have,” Barker says, “are new valve covers, new spark plug tubes and new headers.”

When asked about a potential performance improvement, Barker adds, “To be honest, we haven’t seen it yet.  Basically, one of the reasons Alan did this is because he believes that since (NHRA) has gone back to 90% nitro the raised ports will help cool the heads off a little bit.

“The architecture of the heads in terms of valve sizes and locations remains the same as before, per the NHRA rules.  This was done primarily from the safety and engine life standpoint, not performance.”

Barker also points out that not every product that comes out of their shop works the way Alan Johnson may have hoped it would.  The Stage III heads, for example, did not perform well for Johnson, so he took them off the car he was working with at the time, yet the Kalitta teams as well as Larry Dixon’s car continued to successfully utilize those heads well into the introduction of the Stage V model.  He also mentions that during her final year of competition Shirley Muldowney’s car was running 4.5s with Stage I heads at a time when almost everyone else had moved to Stage IVs.

What usually happens when Johnson develops a new product is that most of the competitors wait for him to prove its worth before placing orders, and that seems to be the case again this time.  Only Johnson’s Army car will have the heads this weekend in Phoenix, although Tony Pedregon may test with them on Monday, after the race.  As of our deadline no one else has yet placed an order for the Stage VI heads – and they may not have to if current performances continue to keep pace with Tony Schumacher.