If you have not been to a Top Fuel drag race, and have the opportunity to go, you should go. They are quite the spectacle. Being there, hearing, feeling, and seeing those 10,000HP monsters fly down the track is worthy of experiencing live, at least once. The kind of thing you can't watch on TV.
I can say the same for a Monster Truck rally. Go there and embrace your inner 10 year old watching those machines Move. (And, boy, can they move!)
Bring earplugs.
There's more to the sports than the pinnacle of achievement. There are innumerable classes within drag racing, something for everyone. It's not a "solved" problem by any means. Folks will continue to try and master the start, getting traction, keeping that beastly powered thing straight in the lane, trying to not choke on their beating heart that has surged into their throat.
Bracket racing is a hoot where folks bring whatever they like, and they're rated by time (i.e. a "time bracket"). Whether you're running a old 60's hot rod, a Jet Powered car, or anything else, if you can run within the time, it's pretty much fair game. And it can be fun to watch, and real fun to participate in.
Racing of all kinds can be a fun culture to be around.
The article is mostly focused on race tracks, and especially drag racing. But to me "hot rodding" explicitly means street racing.
And in street racing, and driving fast responsive cars in general, electric is the future.
I just recently started owning one, and it drives better than any other vehicle I have ever driven.
The instant acceleration, the very fine power control, and the weight distribution make it more responsive and better handling than literally any other car I've ever driven (and I've been driving for 50 years).
Power hasn't been a problem in racing for decades now. All the major racing circuits, from F1 to NASCAR, have power limits in some form. It's maintaining ground contact that's hard.
There was an electric dragster, the Lead Wedge, in 1969.[1] It was really crude but performed OK. There was enough unhappiness about an electric doing so well that the sponsoring battery company didn't do it again. Their main customer was auto companies.
The fastest motorcycle is currently an electric.[2] Somebody took it up to Alice's Restaurant above Woodside and drove Skyline on it. Which is a scary thought, if you know the area.
You are absolutely right about electric cars and how fun it is to drive them. I just want to make the obligatory statement that street racing is very dangerous for innocent people and nobody should do it or encourage it.
Amecdotally, I was behind a Tesla 3 performance at a recent track day; it was lowered on eibach springs, but had more mass than my stock height 2004 bmw 3 series.
It couldn't handle the Gs on a slightly negative camber straight, as opposed to I could floor it there. I definitely expected it to clear me on the straights faster.
Yup--electric performance vehicles are unreal when you first give one a try. I test drove a Ford Lightning this week and it is ridiculous what a 7,000-lb vehicle can do with that powertrain (to the point where honestly maybe it should require a CDL to drive). Just for kicks I also tried a Mach-E, which was the same kind of zip but without the novelty of being in a three-ton monster. Both felt glued to the road and they were real pleasures to drive.
I really wanted to pull the trigger on the Lightning, but it really was Too Big (won't even really fit in my driveway). Instead I picked a PHEV Escape SUV that'll become my wife's in 4-5 years (so we retain gas ranges on at least one vehicle) and I'll reevaluate what I can get in electric then. The Escape PHEV, however, has all the other advantages except the instant torque; I've never had a vehicle so able to finely control power and the eCVT smooths out the kind of lagging a conventional transmission has on hills and the like. Using zero gas for an hour-long drive is a nice plus, too.
The future of cars, including and maybe especially fast cars, is exciting.
the whole hotrod culture produced those fast cars in order to compete with the police, it then turned into in-group competition, and then formal racing.
'hot rodding' wouldn't exist without competition.
The first SCTA style 'hot-rods' were 'souped up' ford flatheads that were lucky to have over 80 horsepower going for top speed runs.
What i'm saying is that 'racing' was before 'fast' in the history of hot-rodding.
p.s. this also applies to the almost-entirely-disconnected very early European car scene. It was racing events and famous individuals that drove the entire culture -- this then lead to 'fast cars'. The history of the Mille Miglia comes to mind.
>>And in street racing, and driving fast responsive cars in general, electric is the future.
Street racing is entirely too dangerous and of course illegal. You don't have to race to take part in the street scene, which in that scenario the actual power to weight ratio is somewhat irrelevant in itself. What is relevant to me, personally, is the ambience that surrounds a supercharged radically cammed V8 rumbling down the street. That will give me goosebumps every time. The power is in it's growl, not necessarily it's bite. I don't know how you replicate that in an electric vehicle and I think that feeling transfers to the racetrack as well. I would rather watch a 3-4 second top fuel race rather than a 2-3 second electric car race.
Oh yeah if you ever do happen to catch one of those top fuel events don't miss watching them rebuild the engines and the 'let's make sure it runs' startups. The fumes will cause tears in your eyes and your lungs will hurt but it's as good or better than the actual race.
You really dont though, turbos cut the noise in half in the recent years and it's considerably nicer to watch a race.
Recently, the gt3 Porsche cup at an F1 event; you need earplugs for the gt3s 1000' away, but the F1 cars you can have a conversation, not damage your hearing (because of the turbos)
I can say the same for a Monster Truck rally. Go there and embrace your inner 10 year old watching those machines Move. (And, boy, can they move!)
Bring earplugs.
There's more to the sports than the pinnacle of achievement. There are innumerable classes within drag racing, something for everyone. It's not a "solved" problem by any means. Folks will continue to try and master the start, getting traction, keeping that beastly powered thing straight in the lane, trying to not choke on their beating heart that has surged into their throat.
Bracket racing is a hoot where folks bring whatever they like, and they're rated by time (i.e. a "time bracket"). Whether you're running a old 60's hot rod, a Jet Powered car, or anything else, if you can run within the time, it's pretty much fair game. And it can be fun to watch, and real fun to participate in.
Racing of all kinds can be a fun culture to be around.
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