[masraum]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

Have you seen Top Fuel cars run, live and in person? If not, drop whatever it is you're doing and get yourself to the nearest NHRA National Event. Words simply cannot describe...

I've seen some 1/8 mile drags, and was in a parking lot car show once that had a rail, although no where near Top Fuel levels. He started it, and I was standing 2-3' from the headers, which was impressive, but then I didn't realize that he was going to blip the gas to skeedaddle over to the far end of the parking lot where the trailer was. It felt like someone had hit me in the chest with a bat. I have no doubt that a Top Fuel rail is 50x as violent. I think they used to hold one of the big 1/4 races in Beaumont Texas (Winter Nationals, maybe), but I think they've stopped.

Back to that 930 / Viper race. I actually did find it very interesting. I would have guessed the Viper would have simply eaten the 930's lunch. I'm really surprised it did not, but I have some thoughts on that...

I drag raced for about a decade before I learned to turn a steering wheel (actually, we turn the wheel a lot more than most would think, trying to keep those darn things straight). Drag races are won and lost in the first hundred feet or so. It's all about "the launch".

In the lower classes that I ran (still a good deal faster than these two cars), with manual transmissions the launch is absolutely brutal. Essentially sit on the rev limiter while the "Christmas Tree" lights count down, then just step off the clutch at the green. I used to launch my big block MOPAR drag cars at 6,800-7,000 rpm. The sheer violence of that clutch slamming home at that rpm was something to behold.

I didn't see that in this drag race. Neither car had the tires to do it, both apparently running whatever street rubber happened to be on them. Put some slicks on these cars and launch them properly and I bet the tables would be turned. I would even go so far as to say the 930 tranny would never survive such a real bonafide drag launch, where I'm sure the Viper's would.

Interesting comparison nonetheless. More indicative of "real world" street encounters than a "real" drag race would have been. But, well, I just couldn't get past the, to me, cheesy presentation. Too many of these Goobers on YouTube these days.

Lots of cool stuff there. Of course your drag launch is unlikely to work well in a street car with street tires. My understanding is that getting a good launch in a street car with street tires is a delicate balancing act to minimize wheel spin, but keep the car in it's power band (especially important in the turbo). And then there's the matter of not wanting to trash part of a street car (trans, axles, etc...).

Still, it was interesting to see just how close they were. It was unfortunate that 2 of the races included missed shifts.