Why drag racing

There are a few different kinds of motor racing. Drag racing fits into that last category and is probably the purest form of sprinting.

F1 engines are designed to last at least four races out of each season, and since refueling was banned in the teams need to manage fuel consumption during the races, and with Pirelli constructing tires to last a finite number of laps tire management is a part of the race as well.

A drag race is when you have two cars side by side, and after some indication of the race starting lights, gunshot etc , both cars begin accelerating to reach the finish line, whatever that might be checkered flag, the next stop light, etc and whoever reaches it first wins the race. He succeeded and within two years all car engines sat behind the drivers.

From the s onwards drag racing began to take its modern shape. This was the era of sponsorship with big companies throwing their support behind teams.

Volunteer crew members were suddenly given wages, trailers were turned into mobile workshops, and even the NHRA found a sponsor allowing it to offer bigger prize money. When the NHRA celebrated its 50th anniversary in , it was clear to all that drag racing had truly stamped its mark on the heart of the American public.

All rights reserved. History Detectives. Feature 15 Oct Feature 14 Oct Feature 11 Oct Feature 09 Oct Feature 08 Oct Feature 04 Oct Posted by NHRA. Speaking of reaction times:. Header flames! At an NHRA track, there are no bad seats in the house.

The fan appreciation. See: This article. No one asked me to write it. The passion of the drivers and their crews. The drama that is every. The Wally trophy. Getting your NHRA membership pack in the mail every year. Four-wide drag racing. The strategy of deep staging. How drag racing often becomes a family affair passed down from generation to generation.

Holeshot wins! The inherent patriotism for America in every aspect of each race day. Drag Racing League. The heritage and respect for drag racing by the drivers that remains consistent every week. Age, sex, and race have nothing to do with ability. Wondering each week if another record will be broken.

And then seeing it happen. Rookie vs. Getting from to mph takes another 1. The NHRA boasts that a top-fuel dragster can out-accelerate a fighter jet from a standing start. Two seconds into a run, the driver is experiencing as much as 5 times the force of gravity. It's completely nuts. Top-fuel dragsters bear no resemblance to anything you might even remotely consider an automobile.

Oh sure, they've got four wheels, a steering wheel and an engine, but that's where the similarities end. The cars are 25 feet long, as stipulated by the rules, and have a wheelbase of no more than inches.

They are made of chrome-moly steel tubing and wrapped in carbon fiber bodywork. Grubnik says the rear wing on his car generates 5, pounds of downforce at mph.

Massive inch carbon fiber brakes on the rear wheels, along with a pair of parachutes, bring the cars down from speed. When a driver yanks the cord on both chutes, he can experience as much as 7 times the force of gravity. Funny cars run the same engines as top-fuel dragsters but package them in smaller cars with a wheelbase of inches wrapped in full bodywork.

They're loosely based on production cars, although Toyota has never, ever built anything like Arend's Toyota-bodied car. Unlike a top-fuel dragster driver, the guy at the wheel of a funny car sits behind the engine, which, coupled with the shape of the body, makes visibility a challenge. Arend says funny cars also are harder to drive. A funny car wants to do anything but go in a straight line.

Top-fuel dragsters run on a mix of 90 percent nitromethane and 10 percent methanol, although the mix can change depending upon conditions. Whatever the ratio, the fuel economy of a top-fuel car is best measured in gallons per mile.

They'll suck down three gallons a minute at idle and as much as 1. A typical car will consume 12 gallons of fuel —- at about 16 bucks a gallon —- during the burnout, staging and run. The fuel flows through a 2. Most of it is wasted, because the engines aren't terribly efficient. Engines are stripped to the billet-steel crankshaft and rebuilt after every run.

A skilled crew of seven mechanics can do the job in an hour or so, but if all hell breaks loose they've been known to do it in half that. The forged-aluminum connecting rods and pistons along with the exhaust valves, spark plugs and clutch discs are replaced after every run. Everything else gets a thorough inspection and is yanked if there's any doubt as to its integrity or reliability. Once reassembled, the engine is filled with 13 quarts of weight oil.

It's a huge undertaking, which is why Kalitta Motorsports — founded and led by racing legend Connie Kalitta — uses five trucks to haul three cars, seven spare engines and enough parts to build a car from scratch if necessary. Exhaust valves are a single-use item.