[Jeff Higgins]

I stand corrected, Mule. The car that I was helping with had nothing like that, though. There was, quite literally, nothing in the reach of the driver to control fuel or ignition. The pump was single stage. They just put about a gallon more in it than they needed to finish the run, and if was still idling when it coasted into the shutdown area, some one there shut off the fuel. It sounds like they are way more sophisticated now.

Are you sure the shutoff doesn't just return the pump to the first stage, and shut the throttle? Does it completely dissengage the pump drive? That would be way fancier than what they had when I was helping these guys. I just remember the rules did not allow for any connections in the fuel lines between the tank and the pump. They were worried about them splitting and leaking, especially anywhere near the driver. Not in a wreck, mind you, but just because the cars shake so hard. The lines had to be continuous and uninterrupted from tank to pump.

I've seen what happens when they go lean at full throttle. I think a lot of the failures back then were attributable to this. The modern pumps have all but eliminated the fuel starvation problem and it is actually much less common to see a motor let go now than it was twenty some odd years ago. Of course all of the equipment has changed so much. Way more sophisticated (and expensive) now.

Hell, these guys were running the old Donovan 417 blocks based on the 392 design. They only had two, and maybe enough spare parts to replace the internals once. They were all cast-offs from the bigger teams. If the car broke once, and nothing came out through the sides, we could usually get it back together for another run. If it broke again, the weekend was over. Or if it busted the block. Then it was mix and match parts when we got home to try to put together another running set, usually with more cast-offs bummed from the big kids. The block would be sent out to be welded and remachined. It was amazing how many welds were on those blocks after awhile. This was right at the twilight of the "little guy" in the fuel classes; try running like that now. Just can't be done.

The spark is (or was back then) a key tuning tool. I remember the car ran anywhere from about 35 degrees to something well over 40 degrees. Or something like that; I remember it was a lot. More nitro, more power. More advance, more power. Add more of both when you were really hooked up, and flush with money. If the thing truly dieselled, there would be no control over timing and therefore power or detonation. That, and nitro is just too hard to light anyway. We used to start it on gasoline; I'm pretty sure they still do. The little squeeze bottle in the starter's hand, that he squirts into the injectors, is the only priming it get to start it. It probably still has plain old gasoline in it.