We had a quarter mile marked on deserted rural roads one North of town one South. They were on one mile straightaways. I raced a buddy on the Northern one. My $100 1957 Chevy 2dr 110. 235cu in I6 three speed M/T column shift versus his $400 1957 Chevy 2dr 110. 235cu in I6 three speed M/T Hurst floor shift. I beat him 3 out of 3. He was very afraid of breaking something. That was the extent of my personal street racing although I watched quite a bit of it.
Many years ago the city contributed (kind ofâŠ) to racing when they resurfaced the arrow straight 3 mile stretch going to the local AFB.
No houses, no businesses, nothing. And it was nice, wide lanes with wide shoulders. Before the construction signs were down and open to traffic someone went out there one night and painted a broad stripe across both lanes. They went down the road about 1320 feet and painted another. No one on the road crew seemed to dwell on what it was so they left it.
Iâve been out there a few timesâŠ
I never did much racing with my Morris Minor or VW Bug. I tried to make them go faster but just no use. My BIL did tend to get in a race once in a while and I remember his 58 Desota pitted against a friends 54 Desoto out on the highway. I donât remember who won. We had the right lane though so he was in the wrong lane so I wasnât too concerned about me. Now I do remember my dad though taking on a guy on the out skirts of Duluth with our V8 54 Ford manual. So I must have been 6 or 7 then. Even then I thought it was kind of undignified but we won. You could do about 60 in second gear so the smart alec never had a chance.
And then there was Justin Bieber in Florida. That punk should have gone to prison. And then gotten deported.
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We are not here to help you kill people. Come back and talk to us when youâve figured out the difference between a race track and a street.
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I would add to this that in many jurisdictions, if youâre caught street racing, your car is impounded. In many places itâs for a minimum of 30 days and you get to pay the impound fee (itâs a daily rate) to get your car out, which is in addition to any fines you have to pay. On top of that, youâll get to enjoy adding points to your driving record, and in many places street racing is a major traffic offense.
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In Oregon the official violation is âconducting a speed contestâ and can fall between careless and reckless driving. A very serious moving violation.
I think in NH itâs called âDriving to Endangerâ, but Iâm not sure. I have no firsthand knowledge.
Many years ago I was with a friend one night in his '69 400 Firebird. That car was fast and then some.
So weâre sitting there at the last light on the highway and a Mercury Cyclone GT (428, dual 4s) pulls up and wants to race.
My friend obliged and then proceeded to hand the guyâs head to him on a platter.
The Cyclone driver pulled over on the side of the road and was cursing non-stop while blaming a âcarb problemâ as to why he got waxed so badly. In between cursing fits he said to let him iron out the carb issue and he would run again.
My buddy told him no thanks, we have better things to do than sit on the side of the road while someone works on the their car with a flashlight.
As we drove off the guy was screaming profanity at us and giving us the one finger salute.
The Cyclone driver? An Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper. We knew this because we knew the car dealer he had bought it from a few weeks earlier and the dealer had previously told us a trooper by the name Sxxxxxxxxn was the new owner.
Guess the thought of incriminating himself prevented him from playing the law enforcement card that night.
Do you mean JATO ?
Maybe it was a JATO; since it was fictional, it could have been either. JATO means âJet-Assisted Take Offâ, RATO âRocket-Assisted Take Offâ. Planes could land in a short airfield but couldnât take off under their own power had an assisting engine for taking off, which they jettisoned when they made speed. This was military only, of course, as a non-safe practice. I think they were a war-time only measure. The Wikipedia page conflates them.
Speaking of JATO or RATO, Iâve been to several races at New England Dragway where jet cars are the main attraction. They hold âJet Cars Under The Starsâ every summer.
The fastest jet car I remember did the quarter mile in 2.94 seconds hitting 314 mph.
At that acceleration and speed, there is so little room for error.
While rocket propulsion is technically a form of jet propulsion, in modern usage âjetâ means turbojet. So JATO or RATO are both technically correct for a rocket. A jet is a nozzle, like the ones that meter fuel in a carburetor.
Thatâs actually very impressive. Jet cars are notoriously bad performers at launch, because jets donât realize their full power potential until thereâs a lot of airflow into the intake. He made up a lot of ground on the back end of the run to do that.
Either that or he had afterburners.
Hereâs my favorite jet car, a 1991 Toyota MR2 with twin T58 jet engines developing 4200 horsepower.
But talk about driveline losses - only around 1200 was available at the wheels. The rest went to keeping the engines turning.
How much of the 10,000 HP in a top fuel dragster or funnycar makes it to the wheels? What about the 2000. HP pro stock cars? BTW, what do you think about the fuel injected pro stock class without the huge blower? Iâm in favor of it. They still have a ton of power and it must be safer for the drivers with a full field of vision forward.
WellâŠInteresting story there! You always hear about dragster superchargers taking 400hp just to turn, but apparently theyâve figured out a way to measure horsepower entering the diff using magnetic torque sensors in the clutch/diff coupling, which they have to do because a normal dyno would pretty much explode if you put a top fuel car on it.
So that 10,000hp number (actually closer to 11,000 these days) is after all the engine losses, so youâre pretty much only dealing with differential losses at that point.
I have no idea what those losses are because weâd have to stick it on a dyno to know for sure, but the power/forces involved in top fuel racing are un-be-freaking-lievable.
Honestly, I think drag racing is something you go to once to see what itâs like, but after that⊠Watching a drag race is like watching football. A whole lot of boring milling around between plays.
So I wasnât even aware of that. Now ask me about vintage car racing and I can go on all day! 
I guess I agree. Iâm just not a fan of drag racing or even the track racing. I used to like stock car racing but not after they all are the same now. I remember seeing the 61 Fords doing tricks like driving on two wheels, ramp jumping etc. and that was fun to watch. Bring back the plain old stock cars for me.
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They killed any interest I had in NASCAR when they put the governors on. Just a long line of shiny things going in circles now.
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What governors would those be?
Make sure the tires you buy are round. Never get the square ones as they tend to slow you down. And always wear an aerodynamically designed helmet. I mean always. Especially when you walk down the street or go out to a restaurant and stuff like that.