There was a silver chevy II with tinted windows that generated some chatter at the ace race at 42 a few years ago. The car was allegedly .00X like every hit until the wind picked up and blew the tree around a little, then the car suddenly went like -.250. I dont recall any confirmations being made but I think it even made 00sh!tshow at the time.

I'd be surprised if a few guys arent cheating at the big dollar races but there are some amazingly talented drivers that likely kick the cheaters in the head.

Back when I didnt suck - my car got 'checked' fairly regularly. I always considered it an honor. My 6AL box and direct wire button isnt hiding anything. I wish I was good enough to get 'checked' again...lolz.

The dirty dozen was banned from IHRA back around 2000 for the 'matty' boxes. At the time they were invented they really weren't illegal and some of the guys were using them as onboard timers as the track timers weren't as good back then (90's). It was basically an old version of a dragy only more accurate because they used wheel speed sensors and a mercury switch. Many of them still race and will tell you the story candidly. Mike Matty Jr. won a huge race a Kil-Kare last year and several others as I recall. They are a hoot to chat with.

That car was checked and declared legal at the race. Multiple cars were supposedly checked, but the Nova was the only one that got any attention. Some panic with the Nova going late in the rounds and doing better than the "house" cars...

I would like to see a matty box up close...there's gotta be one sitting on a shelf somewhere. It would be neat to document it's use on a car considering the lore around it. Not to mention MSD makes legal boxes today that are far more effective.

I couldn't care less if there is cheating at these big big $$$ races cause I'm smart enough to stay away from them. $1500+ buy ins, $100s for buy backs...those races aren't designed for the hobbyist, it's designed for the guy using drag racing as a tax write off for his business.

Throttle stops and traction control were made legal in UK bracket classes about 7 years ago, I'm guessing they couldn't police it effectively. There was one or two ruffled feathers regarding throttle stops in the ET classes but I was more concerned about traction control, I don't think anyone has took "advantage" of the rules in the bracket class we normally race in.........as far as I know anyway.....

A Matty box in and of itself was just a data recorder that had a real time display. Used properly they are still legal today, you just can't have the data showing to the driver in competition. As to the lore of what they could and couldn't do.......

There is definitely stuff out there and I would think most tracks would have a hard time policing a lot of it.

NHRA Tech Director Lonnie Grim tells a story of a race organizer that hired him to come look at a car that "ran the number" every time.

Lonnie looked the car over, had some things disconnected and he never ran the number again.

There are folks out there hat can police this stuff, just not too many of them.

I was down at Vegas SFM a few years back, , when something was suspected from a few cars. I heard track officials, not really officials, came around with a phoney box detector that would beep and sound off from the suspected cars. Funny thing, they were gone the next day. some of them were well, known big time racers. That was the same year that I noticed guys burping the car close to the finish line, in time trials. No doubt there is technology out there, I have a nephew that does programing on Black Hawk. Helicopters for the military. Really scary what they can do. Jim