New supercharged nitro combination for TAD, TAFC set for 2026 NHRA debut
NHRA’s Top Alcohol Dragster and Funny Car classes will become even more diversified and interesting in the 2026 NHRA season with the addition of a new engine/fuel combination set to be introduced.
The new combination, which will join the traditional supercharged methanol and injected nitromethane options available to both classes, will allow teams to run their supercharged engines on nitromethane fuel and will provide another next-step learning opportunity for teams hoping to step up the Top Fuel and Funny Car classes of the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series.
Funny Car world champion tuner/driver Del Worsham, who initially proposed the new combination to NHRA, and Terry Haddock Racing both tested the new combinations for the NHRA late last year, with their Funny Cars' performances equal to the current crop of Top Alcohol Funny Cars. Worsham's car ran a get-acquainted 5.62 in testing following the fall Las Vegas event, a run that easily would have qualified it for that event.
Requirements and specifications for both blown nitro combinations are the same as those for Top Fuel and Funny Car, but nitromethane content is restricted to 85% maximum, and artificial cooling and/or heating of fuel is prohibited.
The supercharger overdrive ratio is limited to a maximum of 16.99% (1.1699) of engine speed, and only one magneto, coil, and points box may be used. Clutches can utilize a maximum of four clutch discs with a maximum of six primary levers, but no clutch management system is allowed. Cars must also have the correct Electimotion Safety Box receiver for quarter-mile competition. Funny Car bodies must meet current NHRA nitro Funny Car specifications.
"We just don't have enough teams coming up through the alcohol ranks, which is how my dad and I and [Richard] Hartman and Dale Armstrong all got started," said Worsham. "When we went from Top Alcohol Funny Car to AA/Funny Car back in the late 1980s, we were able to use almost everything we owned. When we bought stuff — blocks, cranks, heads, blowers — it was all usable. That's not an option today, so you just don't have an easy way to transfer people. You spend a quarter million dollars on a Top Alcohol Funny Car, and not one piece of it can be used in a nitro Funny Car, except maybe the trailer.
"With this new option, you're going to get teams that can and will transfer classes. You're going to get people who learn how to work on these cars, have all the same parts and all the same tuning abilities, the same command module, the same computers, the same MSD timing graphs, which should create a lot more people who suddenly can do this or want to do this. That was the whole idea."
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