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3/4/12, 2:39 PM   #2
Re: Ford Fontana engine competitive??
darnall
darnall is offline
Senior Member

Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 773
 

It depends on where you are racing, who you are racing against and what your definition of competitive is....
Also depends on which version your engine is...every Fontana I've ever seeen says "Ford Motorsports" on the block, but some use a head with Ford like port locations... The new Fontanas are as good as anything...Brad Kuhn is proof of that..The older Fontanas are usually still good motors with useable power, but theres a significant HP gap in them compared to a shiny new Esslinger or Toyota..

I bet the car you bought has one of the older Fontanas...thats fine...you see about 70 of them at the ChiliBowl every year, but ....

Are you going to win a USAC show at Terre Haute with this engine....nope
Are you going to win the Belleville Midget Nationals with this engne...nope
Are you going to be a contender with PowrI or smaller sanctions on 1/4 or 1/3 mile tracks of varying shapes and traction...yes you can be, provided everything is set up right on the car and the driver can do his job..

It amazes me how the older engines (10-15 yr old designs) are able to be competitive or winners on the smaller tracks but once you get bigger than small 1/3miles the new motors just run away and hide....I think a big component to PowrIs success is that so many of thier races are run on little bitty bullrings, and you rarely if ever see a PowrI show at a half mile track.