cool sounds while in the garage

[sammyg2]

i was just out in the garage and I heard a strange sound, like someone dragging a wheeled garbage can around with bad wheels but it kept going.

I was listening and trying to identify it when I heard a quick loud WOMP then more cackling.
That's a top fueler!
I could tell it was quite a ways away, but who could be firing up a top fueler around here?

I thought about it and the direction it came from, then I put it together.
There's an in-n-out burger in that direction about 2 miles away.
Melanie Troxel is driving an in-n-out burger funny car this year.
I bet they were doing a promotion thing there.

I'm most of the way through my second beer for the night so I didn't want to drive over there to check it out but I bet that's what it is.

Even from 2 miles away a top fueler sounds awesome.

[GH85Carrera]

Yea, top fuelers sound like someone dropping thousands of telephone poles per second from 1000 feet in the air. It is an amazing sound.

[looneybin]

a friend of mine has a shop that's near Gary Scelzi's shop, there is NOTHING like standing 10' from one of those when they blip the throttle

[herr_oberst]

There is nothing funnier than standing in the pits during warmups - at the hit of the throttle, the whole crowd jumps simultaneously, and then everyone looks around to see if they were the only one scared $hitless. It happens every time, and it is always funny!

[asphaltgambler]

When I was kid in the late 60's I lived in a fairly rural area. There was a guy that lived @1/2 mile from me and he raced top fuel NHRA. His wife, believe it or not, was the crew chief. They used to fire that thing up and I could hear it across the valley. Unbelieveable .

[trekkor]

When the NHRA cars run at Infineon I can hear them from my driveway when the wind is blowing this way.

It's about a fifteen minute drive from my place.


KT

[teenerted1]

i used to work in yorba linda a few blocks from john force's shop....we would hear them testing engines a few times a week in the afternoon. this was inside the office with a phone headset on.

every one in the office would ask "did you hear that?" i knew what it was everytime.

[madmmac]

Jerry "The King" Ruth lived by a friend of mine when I was growing up. Pretty much every week(weather permitting) he would fire up and run either his top fuel or funny car down the street a few times for testing. It was pretty rural out there. Everybody was warned/invited and approved. There was always a bbq/party after.

I can hear the top fuel and funny cars at my house from Pacific Raceways which is according to Google Earth, 8 miles away as the crow fly's.

They are a must see at least once in your life.