Drag Racing

The NHRA (National Hod Rod Association) consisting of some 85,000+ members in the sport of Motor Sports, has events all year long. Whether it be Drag Racing, Watercraft, or ProStock, there’s something for every fan throughout the year.

I;’ve been watching drag racing since I was a pup. I love the drags.. its the most awesome good time ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I like John Force… but..

BRANDON BERNSTEIN ALL THE WAY!!!!

i think she is, she is a future champion.

i am an aussie 34 yr old and have been watching her dad for yrs now..yes she has to be one of the best rookies that i have seen in ages..Gonna be just as good as her dad,she got the"Force"mate..good luck girl!!!!!!

I was doing a reaction time test and i got a best time of .4 but i noticed in NHRA racing they get like 0.0XX numbers. I read this on a website: "that program is still going by the .500 index rather than .000…" Is this right, and true?
And if this is true, what is the conversion? A formula???

Reaction time is based on seconds or more correctly fractions of a second.

There are 4 tenths (.400 of a second) and 5 tenths trees (.500 of a second). These times are the time between the lighting of the last yellow light and the lighting of the green light.

On a 4 tenths tree the best reaction time would be .400 meaning the car left exactly when the green light came on. A reaction time of .300 would be a red light from the car leaving before the green light came on. A .410 reaction time would be good. .600 would be very bad meaning the light was green .2 of a second before the car moved.

Because of the differently timed trees reaction times were difficult to understand, especially for fans. New electronics have allowed them to give the reaction time based on the green light rather than the time from the last yellow light. So on a 4 tenths tree a perfect start would be .000 instead of .400 and a .410 becomes a .010 A perfect light on a 5 tenths tree would also be a .000 making everything easier to understand and compare.

If your .4 is based on a 4 tenths tree then that is a perfect light or .000 If it is a 5 tenths tree then that would be a red light. If your .4 time came from the new .000 system then it is very slow.

The conversion would be subtracting .400 from your time on a 4 tenths tree or subtracting .500 from your time on a 5 tenths tree.

Remember it’s one thing to push a button to get a simulated reaction and a completely different thing to stage a race car and make the front tires expose the light beam just as the green light comes on.

are the rear shocks usually tighter then the front i want to learn about how to adjust suspension setup for drag racing

all depends on the vehicle latter bars and coil overs are a good set up on just about any rear wheel drive car if your car has struts on the front a 90/10 is a good set up for struts coil overs on the rear depend on the weight of the car traction bars are a bad idea they can still let your rear end hop and cause you to break an axel latter bars and 4 link is the only way to go if your serious about traction

About a year, year and a half ago, I got a ticket for reckless driving because myself and another person were drag racing. I know it was stupid. Immediately after the police impounded my car and locked me in the back of the squad car in handcuffs for about three hours. During that time I repeatedly asked for my cell phone, which was not given to me. After, while still locked in the car, I was given a pen and a pad of paper and told to write down my statement of the events.

During my court appearance, I was late because my attorney failed to notify me of when the court date was. The result was me getting twelve months of probation, community service, defensive driving, and pretrial diversion. The charges would be dropped assuming I completed all the stipulations and did not get anymore tickets or anything.

My attorney led me to believe that once I completed all the terms of my probation we could get the charges dismissed. So, based on that information, I did all of it as quickly as I could, I finished within four months of the original court date. After my final probation meeting I called my lawyer asking for him to start the process of getting my charges dismissed. After he had not returned my calls for over two weeks, he finally tells me to give him a call about it in a little over eight months. When I asked him to please try to get the charge dismissed now he took a very attacking tone and asked what the cause of my urgency was.

Here’s my question, in my state, Georgia, can I get off of a pretrial diversion before the timeframe listed at trial? Does any of the events immediately after the act constitute a violation of my Fifth Amendment rights? And do any of my attorney’s actions constitute him being an ineffective council? Or do any of his actions constitute him just being a lazy jack ass?

What the judge sentenced you to was if you completed all of his requirements you could petition the court in a years time to have all the charges against you dismissed in essence you are basically on probation for a year and as long as there are no violations and you complete everything that has been imposed on you all charges will be dismissed when the year is up

The 5th amendment is right not to incriminate yourself.
Are you talking of your Miranda rights that is the right to an attorney before questioning. Either one is to late now as you have already accepted the plea.

The cell phone would never be given to someone who has just been arrested out of safety for both you and the officer

ok, so i want to make my autococker fast without making it electric. kind of like making a tippmann fast by adding a RT instead of a egrip. its a prostock ‘04. any aftermarket triggers, internals, etc?

here is video for you to time your auto cocker.
You may also want to buy light weight as possible
moving parts from your dealer. more they weight slower the gun is.

And what size motor do they use? Is the motor the most expensive part? I assume it is but I wonder how much it costs.
Horsepower numbers? Foot pounds of torque?

No idea on cost, but I’d estimate about 100k.
Engine rules in NHRA say that 500 CI motors are the largest you can use, but the most common is 496. They make anywhere from 7000 to 9000 horsepower and about 7000 ft.-lbs. of torque, mainly because of the nitromethane fuel they use (gasoline could never make that kind of power in a 500 CI motor, no matter what you do to it) and the optional roots-type supercharger, which probably isn’t so optional to these guys. The block is aluminum billet, the crankshaft is steel, intake valves are titanium, and exhaust valves are made out of a high temp super alloy called Inconel. After all this, I’d say yes, the motor IS the most expensive part to buy.

I found 2 non-pro funny cars on ebay. One was a complete Opel GT funny car for 16K buy-it-now price with a 383 small block Chevy stroker motor. The other was an incomplete corvette-body funny car with a 454, although by the looks of his shop he wasn’t too bright — he lifted a really old Grand Prix and put mud tires on it. The bid was at 4800 dollars.

Hope this was useful to you

I want to know who set the record for the slowest elapsed time in NHRA history. I just want the driver name and his elapsed time, I don’t need the dragstrip name.
lol. The suggested categories were ART or MATH!

check out the link…………..think u will find it there

wait u said slowest…………hang on i will try to find something

this is kind of a weird question.
i am sure ther are alot of them out there that are really slow.i have seen cars cross the line at 80mph…………really long et.

When cops were a little younger, back when they were in their teens or early 20s, I’m sure even they sped around and enjoyed having fun burning rubber in some Firebird or Camaro. I’m 28 years old and I still haven’t had that V8 yet and I really want to speed and burn rubber at some point with one, but without the risk of getting a ticket.

Remember when those cops stop the drag races in
"The Fast and the Furious" and its sequel?

Its tons of fun. 150+ on an empty road, its all going well. Then the guy youre racing over compensates for something, or hits a rock, or hits a pothole, or even just looks away for a second and next thing you know your 3000lb has moved a 8000+ pound trailer 20 ft and ripped the entire top off the car (and ripped the top of your girlfriend in the passenger seat, but you wont find that out for a couple weeks because theyre still using the jaws of life to pull your unconscious body out).

I got pulled over once doing 144 in a 70. The cop told me if he ever saw me going so much as 1 over again he’d arrest me. I’d driven the route a couple times and made sure it was safe, no cars, no debris, perfect for those speeds. ‘Responsible speeding’ if you’ll go for that term.

About a month later I started working in insurance claims. The thing at the top is the second call I took-I’ll never forget it. The kid was careful, did everything right, but its just not possible to control a car that isnt actually touching the ground.

__

Smart street racing doesnt exist. Minimizing variables means going to the track where there are fewer variables and much more control of them.

____

Want another one?
My old street car was parked on the side of the road (legally) in a 30mph zone. Girl in a Honda Civic was going an estimated 60mph. Only 60-shouldnt be a big deal. She clipped my bumper slightly, it spun her car causing her to T-bone mine. Moved my much heavier and larger car 10 ft into another one, pushed it foward a bit, and destroyed her car. Worst part was, she’d taken off her seatbelt for a second to check on her kid in the back. Due to that, she was flung foward just before the airbag opened. When we went outside you could see the red mark where her head had cracked the windshield before her back was snapped by the airbag deploying into her stomach which was up against the steering wheel.

did David Pearson also get the same engines? Then in 1965 Chrysler boycotted NASCAR after Bill France Sr. banned the 426 from competition because of the unfair advantage it afforded the drivers that used it. Both Richard and David did some drag racing that year because of the boycott. How did they do and did they ever race against each other during that time? Petty was also in a bad accident while drag racing that year and killed an 8 year old boy that was a spectator. Seven other people were injured as well. Does anyone know more about this story or what caused it? Thank you, I tried finding more information on these subjects but could only find bits and pieces. FYI, Bill France was forced to let Chrysler use the 426 again, in late July of 1965, due to diminishing ticket sales.
Tina, the 2nd link you provided was a very interesting read. Thank you.
Ed P- David Pearson drove an assortment of Pontiacs, Plymouths and Dodges in his early career and when he won his first championship in 1966. He did not switch to Ford until he started driving for Holman-Moody in 1968, when he won his 2nd championship.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Pearson
…They (Richard and David) did race together "Between August 8, 1963 and June 12, 1977, they finished one/two on sixty-three occasions, with Pearson coming out on top with thirty-three victories".
In 1964—-
…Richard Petty won 8 races and had 37 top 5s
…David Pearson had 8 wins and 29 top 5s

…I’m going to guess yes on Pearson with a 426 Hemi. Didn’t Cotton Owens run the 426 Hemi in his cars? Also I believe the 426 Hemi was used in the Dodges and Plymouths.

Added:
…Actually Cotton Owens said "I run a Chrysler salvage yard. But I just got done building a ’64 Dodge like we raced in ’64 with a Hemi engine". And the older engines had a rear mounted distributor while the 426 hemi had a front mount
distributor.
http://www.thehemi.com/identify.php
http://www.cottonowens.com/polara.html

http://www.thehemi.com/racing.php

1962-63
…Chrysler began work on a big block engine
The first 426 Hemi was assembled in Nov 1963
The first 426 Hemi dyno was done in Dec 1963 (it exceeded the dyno’s 400-hp max)

1964
…The new 426 Hemi debuts at the 1964 Daytona 500
Paul Goldsmith, in a Belvedere, qualified first at 174 mph, 14 mph over the previous qualifying record
Richard Petty qualified second with his 426 Hemi
By the end of the race, Richard Petty had lapped the entire field
426 Hemi-powered Dodge and Plymouths took 4 of the top 5
Overall for the season, Dodge wins 14 races and Plymouth wins 12
Richard Petty won 8 races and had 37 top 5s
David Pearson had 8 wins and 29 top 5s

More to come.

…On the drag racing accident…………
http://www.atlasf1.com/2001/aus/preview/mirror.html

…NASCAR’s mortal enemy in stock car racing, USAC, was quick to point out to Chrysler that it was continuing to use the same rules it had in 1964 and the Plymouth and Dodge Hemi teams were welcome to compete on that circuit in 1965. Many did, including Paul Goldsmith, Bobby Isaac, and David Pearson. Richard Petty and Petty Enterprises went drag racing. In a Barracuda that they called "Outlawed," Petty attracted large crowds wherever his raced. Unfortunately, on 28 February 1965, the same day that a 100-miler was being run at the Asheville-Weaverville Speedway in Weaverville, North Carolina, Petty and "Outlawed" were at Southeastern Dragway in . During a match race with Arnie Beswick, the Barracuda experienced transmission problems off the line. As Petty tried to find second gear, the car started to get loose. When Petty finally got it into second gear the car suddenly broke loose, turned towards the spectator area, and hit the embankment. The Petty Blue Barracuda vaulted the embankment, being launched almost straight up, which carried the car over the fence that was supposed to protect the spectators, and into the crowd. Seven people were injured when the Barracuda slammed into the people who had come to watch the match races. One of these suffered severe head injuries, but there was an eighth victim, Wayne Dye – an eight-year old from Austell, Georgia. He died of his injuries before he reached the hospital. Petty suffered light injuries in the violent crash, but the shock of the young boy’s death stayed with him for years.

…43/JR was out on the drag strips by November of 1964. Although it could probably have been raced in some existing class, “exhibition” was where the money and the most exposure was. The car was booked at various tracks well into the 1965 season. On February 28, 1965, 43/JR was scheduled for a best of three match race with Arnie Beswick at Southeastern Dragway in Dallas, Georgia. Dallas is northwest of Atlanta about 300 miles from Randleman. During one of the runs against Beswick a front suspension part broke sending the uncontrollable Barracuda off the strip and into the crowd of spectators. Several people were injured and one 8 year old boy named Wayne Dye was killed. Richard was okay but he and the family were devastated. JR was hauled home to the Petty junk yard in the woods behind the shops never to run again.

…The name "Outlawed" came from when Nascar outlawed the 426 Hemi from competition. Richard said "If you can’t beat them then Outlaw them".

…This article also said that his front suspension broke and sent his car sailing to the stands http://www.speedwaymedia.com/Articles/05/080405Madding.asp

…Also as far as racing together on the drag strip – yes they did.
And also on this link is a picture of a restored car like the one Petty wrecked called "The Outlaw".
http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.com/mmo12007.html

Petty’s car (The Highlander) -no picture-
Pearson’s car (The Honker)
http://www.draglist.com/photoimages/Photos-RayRay/Full%20Size/bfaubel.jpg

…While it was in force, NASCAR’s Hemi ban affected both the Plymouth and the Dodge Divisions of Chrysler. Plymouth and the Pettys put on a well orchestrated and highly publicized show but what was happening over at Dodge? From the magazine articles of the era you would gather that the major Dodge team of Cotton Owens and their driver David Pearson were also “busy elsewhere” and didn’t need France’s money. Super Stockers in Action of January 1965 had a brief article on a match race held at Islip Drag Strip in New York between Richard Petty and Pearson. You could assume this probably happened around November of ’64. Neither team had their own car. Instead Richard borrowed a ’64 Hemi SS Plymouth “The Highlander” while David used Faubel’s Dodge “The Honker.” Petty won the $1,000 prize. What’s interesting is that while the Pettys would soon get 43/JR out (if it wasn’t done already) the Owens team would not field a “JR like” Dodge until April or May, 1965. This was way too late to affect Bill France’s thinking. By that time, I am sure, his thoughts were not if he should lift the Hemi ban but when. It seems that 43/JR was selected to wage the psychological war with NASCAR single handedly

…As far as being competitive this article http://georgiadragracing.com/articles/hubert-platt-ga-shaker.html says he was a serious contender;

Hubert Platt: The Georgia Shaker
…One of Hubert’s proudest moments in racing was when he defeated NASCAR star Richard Petty in this car at a match race at Lassiter Mountain drag strip in Birmingham, Alabama. Richard was driving his 43/Jr. Barracuda and was a serious drag racing contender while Chrysler was boycotting NASCAR. Late in 1965, Platt built a tube chassised, steel bodied, longnose 1965 Mustang with a fuel injected 427 engine. This was a nationwide popular car that was known for its wild wheelstanding starts.