Intercomp Scale

Weight and Balance

“Drag racing is all about horsepower.” It’s been said often, but today we are just as likely to hear: “Drag racing is all about weight and balance.” And, today’s successful competitor knows that how much his parts and pieces (and his body) weigh, and where they are located in the car, are critical to consistent performance.

Mark Jones won the NHRA Division 4 Championship in Top Dragster for 2014. His Spitzer chassis worked consistently well, and the changes made to his BBC blower and cylinder heads made a big difference in power and 60-foot times over his 2013 performance. Mark knew that he was still “heavy”, and decided to make more changes looking toward defending his title in 2015. The biggest change was swapping out his Chevy block for a brand new BMP all aluminum piece that he thought could provide enough weight reduction to get the car close to the minimum weight. A major change like this to a championship-winning car can be asking for trouble, and could easily mean having to start from scratch to assess performance.