First of all, Pro 5.0 and Street Outlaw have evolved into something that the rules makers never envisioned. Two seasons ago (1998) at the FFW Spring Break Shootout in Bradenton, FL, the low qualifier in Pro (Dennis Ramsey) qualified #1 with an 8.33 at 159 MPH. Today, the Street Outlaw cars regularly run in that range, or quicker.

We now see Pro 5.0 racers running in the low 7's at over 190 MPH and Street Outlaw racers in the 7's at 180 MPH. When you look at the rules for these two classes, the first thing that jumps out at you is the minimum weights. Pro 5.0 has been at 3000 lbs. (for manual trans) and Street Outlaw has been at 3200 lbs. Given the speeds and et's of both of these classes recently, the minimum weights were deemed way too high for safety.

So, starting with Pro 5.0, FFW elected to drop the minimum weight down to 2550 lbs., with driver. The first question that may come up is "how am I going to be able to get my existing car down to that weight?". What we have done is to allow the entire front structure to be cut off and replaced. This structure includes the front sub frames, side panels, strut towers, radiator bulkhead and K-member. In effect, everything in front of the OEM firewall can be replaced with a "tubular front end". Since most of the newer Pro cars are pretty much a "tube chassis" from the firewall back, this will complete the process for an all tube car. The weight savings of this alone is estimated by several chassis shops at between 100 and 150 lbs. This lighter front end will allow racers to potentially remove some of their rear mounted ballast also. We are not saying that every Pro 5.0 car can get down to 2550 lbs., but they should be able to run at a considerable weight reduction over the 2000 season weights. And since the only modification is from the firewall forward (with the engine in the same location), the cost for fabricating and tying the front tubing into the existing chassis/cage area shouldn't break the bank, at least not for Pro 5.0 standards.

Now, what about the "all power adders or transmissions are to be treated the same" stuff? To put it simply, this is a "Pro" class. Nobody is telling the racers which transmission or power adder to choose. If some have more potential than others, use them. Why should a racer who chooses a combination that has less potential than another combination get a weight break? Just because a racer has been using a particular combination over the years is not a mandate that he has to use it for the rest of his life. We have heard this excuse for years. Remember when FFW allowed the Windsor blocks to replace the 5.0 blocks? Or how about back-half cars and wheel tubs? A lot of racers screamed back then but time marches on, and if a racer chooses to bring a knife to a gunfight, don't call us if you get shot.

Much of what we are talking about with Pro 5.0 also applies to Street Outlaw. The S/O cars were running too fast at too much weight on too small a tire.

Many feel that we have been extremely lucky that nobody has gotten seriously hurt in the last several years in this class. So again, safety was the starting point on the 2001 S/O rules.

Minimum weight has been reduced up to 500 lbs. for 2001, at least for the quickest and fastest cars. To compensate for the reduction of ballast, most of which was in the rear, FFW will be allowing a larger tire (29.5x10.5-15W). The larger tire will also assist in directional stability. To assist in weight reduction, the S/O cars can replace their windows with Lexan. This not only will eliminate about 50 lbs, but it removes the weight from the upper portion of the car which could improve recovery efforts if the car gets slightly out of shape. As far as "power adders" go, much of the above description from Pro 5.0 applies. FFW has tried to balance the nitrous vs. turbo/blower issues with more displacement for the nitrous combinations, but the minimum weight will be the same (2800 lbs.) for any combination. Again, it's the racer's choice to choose his weapons.

So, the changes in these two classes have definitely been evolutionary rather than revolutionary. The cars have evolved, the speeds have evolved, and the rules needed to evolve also. Amateur hour is over. There are big corporate sponsors looking at the Ford drag racing community.

Safety is a relative thing. No one in our sport will ever say that racing is safe, it isn't. Obviously, we will see higher speeds and lower et's with both the Pro 5.0 and Street Outlaw cars as a result of the lower minimum weights. But this performance increase was happening anyway. Better to get the minimum weights down to where they should be before it's to late.