Page 12 - NM SPRING

By John Hale with help from Woody (Western Bending)
Laid back headers may be
responsible for recent performance
gains in the Funny Car class, but
they are nothing new to the sport.
Pioneers of the class ran angled
back headers many years ago.
Bigger fuel pumps, better blowers
and ignitions, resulting in quicker
ETs and speeds took their toll on
the headers. Cracked welds and
tubes occasionally resulted in the
header(s) falling completely off the • TF/FC – 3,600 pounds of thrust
car, which shortened the life of a
header to four runs. It was then
that the header manufacturers
figured out that angling the tube up
would remove some of the thrust
load, adding downforce to the front
end resulting in longer header life. why would anyone not want to take
Fast forward to 2015; a prominent
crew chief decided to try a set of
laid back headers and the results
were amazing. An instant half
a tenth leap in ET proved these
10,000 + HP motors make a lot of
thrust.
45° 53° 58°
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Let’s compare some numbers:
• Six passenger corporate jet –
4,420 pounds of thrust per side*
• L ear Jet 70 – 3,850 pounds of
thrust per side*
• K en Hall’s J-85 Jet F/C – 4,000 Dropped cylinders seem to cause
HP and 7,000 pounds of thrust
per side with 2.5” tube
*Take off thrust = 900 pounds of
thrust per cylinder
After looking at these numbers
advantage of thrust?
As teams began to jump on the
bandwagon, other advantages
of the laid back header were
discovered. Taking timing out and
then putting it back in after the
“shake zone” was not needed as
the headers’ thrust propelled the
car through this zone. Leaving the
timing alone meant even quicker
short times and ET gains on the
other end. Down force on the rear
Nitro Madness Magazine
of the car was affected, so rear
spoilers were lowered reducing
drag, therefore increasing MPH.
These advantages can also cause
other problems. From a driver’s
standpoint, the car is harder to
drive with laid back headers.
the car to move quickly to the side
that has the hole(s) out. The front
end feels lighter with less steering
authority on the top end. Recent
mid-track wheel stands have teams
hanging 40 plus pounds of weight
on the nose to keep the front end
down.
Teams now come to the track
with racks of headers that include
45, 50, 53, 55, and 58 degree
angles. Crew chiefs choose a
header angle that best suits the
track conditions. NHRA has now
limited the angle that the tubes can
be laid back — 32 degrees from
the ground up on the back pipe (58
degrees from vertical).
Spring 2017