[Jeff Higgins]

I ran a few big block MOPAR "B" bodied cars in the late '70's through late '80's, with the fastest one breaking into the high 9's at about 130 or so. Had to give it up as marriage, kids, and career intervened. So, when presented with the opportunity, I eagerly volunteered to help crew an NHRA AA/FC class car - yes, a full up, blown nitro Funny Car. This was in the mid '90's. It was running low five second passes in the 280-290 mph range. Even held the mph record at Denver's Mile High Raceway for a couple of years. As an interesting aside, we ran the Donovan 417 motor, an aluminum version of the old 392 Hemi. One of the team owners was a machinist in the tool fab shop at work, that's how we hooked up. He wound up on the cover of National Dragster, holding a cylinder head he had whittled out of a block of 6061-T6. It was a three valve head, with two exhausts. They were on the car when it set the record. He was hoping for fame and fortune through selling sets of them, but it just never worked out.

Anyway, NONE of those tires on any of those cars were ever balanced. I'm not even sure if it would have even been legal. No sure-fired way to ensure they stay on the way that Funny Car shook everything.