A lot of people believe that because of the old days and people not knowing what they are doing.(I suppose that still happens sometimes) They used to say tune it fat to be safe. We've learned with nitrous that isn't necessarily good. Its better to tune it closer to what the engine likes NA, but with lower timing than originally thought.
A reasonable amount of nitrous is very reliable and fast. And just like boost, you have to have your ring gap correct, fueling and fuel pressure correct, bottom end strong enough, timing correct, etc.
If you do that it works quite well and is safe. Nitrous is so easy to install some people put 300 HP on a stock engine with stock fuel pump and then wonder why the cast piston melted and it gets a bad rap.
Although I don't know how it is "cheating". I don't understand that one, is any power adder cheating then?
I suppose it is easier to hide than a turbo or supercharger, so the people that do cheat, it's easier for them to cheat with. But using it when the rules allow surely isn't cheating. I surely don't cheat, nor do I promote cheating.
To be honest that's how I feel about street racing. It's dangerous and to easy to cheat. I say keep racing at the track where it's safer and more fair.
Now when you start making big power, like a couple thousand HP or so. There are people making around 3500 HP or more with nitrous pro mod engines. Then I think nitrous becomes more maintenance and the boost is a little easier on parts because the burn rate isn't as fast as nitrous so you get a longer push on the piston instead of a huge fast bang on the piston. Which in moderate amounts doesn't matter, but it does when you are pushing the limits of everything. Of course its still easy to burn a piston with boost.
Rene, didn't you just say it was awesome when Cleetus was using nitrous and turbos? Cheating?
My brother has installed nitrous on his procharged BBC over a year ago, not back running quite yet. We figure a small 75 shot or so will greatly cool the boosted air and pickup more than the small amount of nitrous alone.