The motor claim rule is a fast and dirty way of getting the job done without going through the PITA of a detailed tech (and people trying to get around it) Basically how it works in the roundy-round world is that the top 4 finishers can purchase any of the top 3 cars' engines for 1 grand, That gets you the entire block heads and intake The carbs and pans stay with the car.
If you check out the "cheapo" engine builders you will find that you can build a respectable SBC for about $1500, I don't know if you could do that with a Ford because the 350s are falling out of the sky, there are very few Ford racers there.
I think the NASA way of doing things is actually better, but you would have to bring a portable dyno out to the track when you ran these events. NASA says that you run any engine in any combination that you want (in this case camaros and mustangs) however, the HP to weight ratio must be "A" to "B".
At the end of the night you dyno the car based on it's HP to weight, if the car is over 10% it's out. This would mean fords, chevies, mopars, and anything else could run competitively and heads up, you could run a top fueler if you want, just don't forget to add the 5 tons of ballast.
That being said, I would limit the class to rear drive muscle cars with the racing organization having the final say (so you could unload the big block Isettas, but keep the 65 GTO.
You guys have to understand this money to fun ratio. You can have a bunch of guys running heads up at 12 seconds with relatively cheap cars or you can all run 8s and piss away some serious bucks doing the same thing. I think you'll find that running heads up is a lot of fun, and an arguably better show, than out moneying the next guy.
This is the big deal right here, like it or not (I don't) NASCAR runs cookie cutter cars with 1950's technology and everybody thinks that it's the greatest show on earth because the races are close and the fields of cars are full. You guys need to be thinking the same way.
With regards to the tire deal, just run a tire that a specific size and brand, done, the tub cars IMO,won't have an insurmountable advantage.


I'm heading ou t to burger king on US 19 in Pinellas Park if anyone wants to continue this discussion there.