As far as reliability goes, we are getting 20+ races out of a 410 and my math puts that at a little over 200 miles.

As to fuel, I am getting a little better than 2.3 miles per gallon out of the sprint motor. With a 65 gallon SC tank I could go at least 125 miles.

As to $75 junkyard blocks, yes you can get plenty at that price but the last time I asked Earl Gaerte he said you have to clean and sonic test 10 to find one that can be used for racing due to the manufacturing tolerances. Then you have to machine the block to racing specs and by the time you are done you might as well have purchased the Dart block. If you throw a rod in the Steel block you get to invest another $3,500 in a new steel block and you now have more in the motor than if you had bought an aluminum block.

As far as speed, yes the sprint car engines do have more power but it is not as great as some might think. There are SC engines pushing 800hp right now! Couple that with the fact that Sprint/SC cars are not very clean aerodynamically and you won’t see a tremendous increase in speeds.

If this was the direction USAC wanted to take, you could phase it in with a 5 year period where you could run an aluminum block 360 if you bolt 60 pounds to your firewall or 410 and run injector restrictors. The 60 pound weight option was successful in the late 80’s to convert the sprint cars without antiquating the existing engines overnight and they are experimenting with the restrictors in USAC right now on the west coast.

Just my $.02.

Rob Hoffman