Oh, nitro burning drag motors no longer use magnetos. Those dual units you see on the front of those "Chrysler" engines are actually generators, which feed an electronic box (which is full of capacitors and such). When I crew chiefed my buddy's nitro funny car years ago, I used an MSD single plug ignition system and an on-board battery to run it. Biggest benefit seemed to be the easy starting, even when the engine was turning over slowly when the 36 volt starter batt. unit would drop off in charge. And yes, I ran large plug gaps. Those were the days of magnetos and .016" gaps, by the way.
TECH NOTE: Nitromethane is a conductor and once you fuel foul a plug, it's very difficult to get it to fire. High voltage and big plug gaps solved that problem!
