review: NitrOlympix (German pro dragracing 18-20th August 2017)

[TobiasM]

Dear community,

here is a review of Germanys main event when it comes to dragracing sweetened with LOTS of photos you will hopefully enjoy.

The event is named NitrOlympix and took place on the weekend of 18-20th August at Hockenheim-Ring racetrack-areal which is famous for also hosting one of the two German Formula-1-tracks (the other one is Nürburg-Ring).

But Hockenheim-Ring is (to my knowledge) where the only permanent Dragrace-track is in Germany. It also has the worlds longest (?) runout/brakeing-zone, so technically it would be safe/possible for the TopFuelers to run the genuine full 1/4 mile, but due to complying with international dragracing-rules (FIA/NHRA) the TF`s run only the 1.000feet as anywhere else.

Lower classes though do run the full 1/4mile, but don`t nail me on the classes spec`s, as I am a novice when it comes to PROFESSIONAL dragracing. This was a pro event for  international FIA-championship for cars and bikes with competitors from Sweden, Norway, Great Britain, Netherlands, France, Germany and many more European countries.

The "slowest" car-class was the "pro ET" which still required a car being faster than 12.00 ET and the fastest car-class was the "TF dragster" running 4.5x ET`s and a top-speed of more than 450kph/280mph.

This was a 3-days-event, with a great night-show on Saturday (jet-dragster, stunt-drivers etc.) and I was there all weekend with a bunch of 2 dozen MOPAR-buddies. We were extremely lucky with the weather, cause it only rained when it didn`t harm. As this is the one and only such event in Germany, it was sold out completely...I didn`t expect that and was glad to see there is so many people interested in dragracing.

I liked best that the pitlanes were all open, so you could stand 2 feet away and "supervise" the TF-teams if they rebuild that HEMI correctly ;-) The infield of the track-areal was to my surprise a car-show with a good variety of cool US-cars in stock or customised condition and several interesting cars were to spot at the parking-lot, too.

My favorite racing-class was the "slowest", the "pro ET" class, cause I like dragracing with the cars it initially started with: street(able) cars and musclecars. This is the cars I identify most with and which carry the spirit of dragracing, that started on the streets and then was tried to get shifted over to official (safe) tracks.

So enough of words...time for the first bunch of photos 

[TobiasM]

This is one coooooooool Bird 

[TobiasM]

These following two cars were reportedly both VERY fast for what they are, both less than 10sec-cars...but I missed them on track cause I was doing my pitwalk.

The Jeep is told to just change back to his street tires and then drive home on his own wheels in his earlier days ("high tens"), but is now faster and has a glass-frontend with airbrushed headlights, so no streetuse allowed in Germany in that actual condition.

The Caddy was ALL STEEL and still having most of its full-amenities-interiour with it...would guess a +4000lbs bulk.

Again, both less then 10seconds!

[TobiasM]

Plymouth makes it...3 nice Plymouths...the golden Barracuda was of course not a racing-participant, but a very nice stock 68 Formula S 340, auto-trans.

[TobiasM]

Infield impressions...

[TobiasM]

I am sure especially @Brads70 will like all three of the following cars, which all are from spectators of Switzerland.

At least the two Challengers pretend a little more to be than they came factory:

1) the white-roof 1970 Challenger "340-4" is a factory-318 (JH23G0B312510)
2) the black-roof 1970 Challenger R/T "440-sixpack" is a factory 383-RT (JS23N0B272603).

Though being "wanna be`s", both Challengers were visually in quite good condition and at least the white-roof-Challenger obviously had added options/items (e.g. SE-tailpanel, side-scoops, glas-moon-roof).

3) a 71 AMC Javelin AMX SST...at least the badges say so (I don`t have a clue about these cars, sorry).

[dodj]

Thanks for posting up those pics! Some pretty unique race cars for sure 

[TobiasM]

Took too many pics of these 3 cars, so here are the pics of the 2nd Challenger (RT) and the AMC:

[TobiasM]

This is my last "initial" post and will cover my favorite car of the whole event, which also ran in my favorite class (pro ET):

This is a 1970 Challenger SE residing near Hamburg and belonging to Michael, who I met at this event and was willing to answer my many questions.

His car is an original SE in this very unusual, that it was a /6 from factory (JH29C0B113425). Michael owns this Challenger SE for many years in which he restored it to his likes and his needs (e.g. colour-change to "Panther Pink", a 500cui-Wedge and a Dana-Rear with CalTracs), as he is competing with this car on the strip for also many years.

I really like that this car has the look of a machine you could run into at the next stoplight...which is not unlikely, cause this Chally is streetleglised in Germany.

Michael did a great job on the interiour, as he managed to stuff that rollcage into that car and still KEEP that special SE-headliner with overhead-console. This was a very tricky job requiring lots of precision when welding not to burn/destroy the SE-headliner/console, as Michael explained to me. I also think the two RECARO-leather-sportseats fitt the bill of streetuse vs. proET-rules very good, though these seats are from the 1980`s period.

Despite his very "stock" apperance, Michaels Challenger is good for mid-10`s!

Unfortunately this beautiful Challenger dropped off in the quarterfinals racing against a blue 67-69 Camaro from France due to an early-start/red-light.

So folks, that`s all of my review of the NitrOlympix 2017 from Germany, hope you enjoyed the pics as I enjoyed that event!

[Brads70]

Looks like lots of fun, thanks for posting!

[Cuda Cody]

That looks like an great turn out for a really cool event.  Thanks for sharing the photos and taking the time to tell us about it.   

[RUNCHARGER]

Impressive facility, crowd and cars! Thanks for sharing.

[TobiasM]

Thanks for complimenting @dodj , @Brads70 , @Cuda Cody and @RUNCHARGER !

You're all very welcome!