Back to the basics...

At the beginning of this month, a few friends and I went to the drag strip (1/4 mile) for a test and tune. There was a decent amount of cars there.

Just in observation, I saw many high dollar cars (mainly GM garbage) that were running in the 10's and high 9's. When I walked past the cars in the, "pits", I was practically blinded by the amount of billet aluminum that was underneath the hoods of these cars. The nitrous systems, turbos, crate motors, etc. These racers also had high dollar RV's, enclosed shop trailers, and 4 seat golf carts. Majority of these cars were running in the 10's and some in the high 9's.

I then stopped to see this guys 1971 Chevrolet Nova (454/automatic). The motor had cast heads, stock charging system, and black rubber fuel line hose. It looked very simple and primitive. The damn thing ran 10.20's consistently on all motor!

It just shocks me how wrapped up people get in spending money on certain parts that honestly really don't make that much of a difference.

Your thoughts?

what gets me is the $ people will pay for a whole bunch of serpentine belt stuff. a simple belt and pulleys looks better to me than all that garbage on the front of the motor.