Front overhang not to exceed 30 inches

"Front overhang not to exceed 30 inches, measured from the centerline of front spindle to forwardmost point of car."

We have a 1994 car that we're "working" on. The front wing and nose are 33 inches ahead of the centerline.

Does NHRA really measure this, or can we get by with it until we're competitive?

 

If you are talking about a f/c, it's 40" from center line of front wheel, on the long side if it has stagger in wheel base. Don't know about other classes. Yes NHRA does measure during body
tech.

 

Sorry. I'm asking about an A/Fuel car. I think we can modify the existing nose and trim the wing so that the lead edge an side pieces are even. Just wondering if we needed to worry about it.

 

They have checked my dragster and we were 2" under the max. I did not know about this rule untill Bob Meyer told me about it when I wanted to put on a removable one piece front wing across the nose of my car while it was at his shop instead of the two sections on each side it came with. So we moved the existing wing forward even with the nose instead. It turned out perfect. Thanks Bob at Meyer Engineering for the quality workmanship and expert advise. David Hitt

 

I would think the racers and NHRA, would really be watching this because it's the forwardmost part of the car that trips the win light.

Watching the Steve Johnson fiasco got me to thinking about it.

This is extreme but imagine if your car had a 1000 foot front overhang. You would stage by the front wheels tripping the beam, (this beam is very close to the ground) then travel only 320 ft before your forwardmost part of the car tripped the win light. (this light is something like 6 inches above the ground)

I always thought it was the front wheels that tripped both the stage and win lights, but it's not. It's wheels on the stage and body at the finish.

That's why I would think everyone would want exactly 30 inches in A/Fuel-TAD, or 40" in a Funnycar. It's also why I thought I'd better check ours and found it to be 33 inches, which would effectively give us a 3 inch head start.

 

Never thought to much about that rule before, but our race group (Top Eliminator West) we throw all the different cars into one eliminator. Since we run a dragster, the next time we run a funny car, we'll ask for a 10" head start......!! Thank you very kindly!