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Even the smallest amount of downforce will put a flat spot on a tire at speed. These two pics definitely show that these cars had no downforce. The high in the rear, low in the front attitude at rest contributes to the problem, because we see similar cars today that go faster with no wing and have no issues. Also todays cars, tires and tracks are better.

Monte



You also have to remember that the rules in those days almost dictated this stance because the tire could be no further than 3" inboard of the outer wheelwell, This limited how far inboard the wheel/tire combo could be placed, and the curvature of the body limited how low the body could sit without rubbing the sidewalls. Today's PS cars have a huge gap between the outside edge of the wheelwell and the side of the tire, and tubs that seem to go to the roof.

I have also attached a photo of a Monza and a Colt at close to the end of the 1/4 mile from the mid/late 70's, and you can see how much the tires were growing in circumference. The PS guys depended on this growth so they could run a low rearend gear, usually 5.57 or 5.86, with some of the high-winding guys even running 6.0 or 6.17. Yikes! With the small motors back then in PS, you had to depend on low gear ratios and high rpm to get the car moving, and then tire growth so it didn't blow its crank all over the finish line from too much rpm.

Just my $0.02,

Mark

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