Absolutely Chris I totally understand, I'm way off, to the point of almost parking it, because I am worried about getting in the way. I will have an awesome built engine, or two, for next year, but right now I can't swing it financially. This class is fast and some people have money to spend on engines and some don't. One of those cars is fast in the corners and the other is fast in the straight. Should we have $10,000 engines in the class, nope, but they are there... I think the crate engine has to be looked at for the power it offers for one, and some guys might have to rethink gear ratios, transmissions, setup, etc... if they run the current crate. It certainly has it's limitations and there is no getting around that in my opinion. It's not easy but the truth is cubic dollars win.
This is my opinion on the spec motors. The thunder motor in my opinion isn't competitive as the ones being built. At a cost of $4000, less some things like balancer and intake seems high when a llm complete less carb+ I think dist is $5500. If you look around a 602 crate has been advertised for under $4000. That would be the one to put in the thunder class. Vortec heads, roller cam with mild lift+duration,reliable as hell. Give the late modells the 400 horse, they have underslung chassis and tube clips anyway! Another view would be if the thunders are running the 602, and a driver wants to move up would it be possible to update the 602 to the 604 specs? not shure but if its possible it makes it more affordable.
thunder6 I think that you nailed it. Cubic dollers does buy you the best and the track should have to look at what they can do to even things out. If not we will have a class that no one can get a motor that can hang with the big bucks.
does anyone know why the track went with the crate that they did. I thought someone would have done the homework behind it before they went with what they did.
three or four years ago when the crate engine was introduced, it should have been phased in. the drivers should have been told that they had (lets say 2 years) to run a crate engine, because in 2 years your built motor should need at least $3000 in parts and machining for a rebuild. therefore the thunders would already be a crate class and we wouldn't have this problem or just left us all alone.