Although
the tire tracks of its history are clear, the origin of
the term "drag racing" is not. The theories are almost
as many and varied as the machines that have populated
its ranks for five decades. Explanations range from a
simple challenge ("Drag your car out of the garage and
race me!") to geographical locale (the "main drag" was a
city's main street, often the only one wide enough to
accommodate two vehicles) to the mechanical (to "drag"
the gears meant to hold the transmission in gear longer
than normal).
The first
"dragsters" were little more than street cars with
lightly warmed-over engines and bodies chopped down to
reduce weight. Eventually, professional chassis builders
constructed purpose-built cars, bending and welding
together tubing and planting the engine in the
traditional spot, just in front of the driver; the
engines, and the fuels they burned, became more exotic,
more powerful, and, naturally, more temperamental. ike
almost all racing cars, they have undergone tremendous
evolution as racers upgraded, experimented, theorized,
and tested their equipment. Safety and innovation paved
the way to rear-engine Top Fuel cars in the early 1970s,
and once drag racing legend Don Garlits - himself a
victim of the front-engine configuration when his
transmission, which was nestled between his feet,
exploded in 1970, severing half of his right foot -
perfected the design, the sport never looked back.
Today's Top Fuel dragsters are computer-designed wonders
with sleek profiles and wind-tunnel-tested rear airfoils
that exert 5,000 pounds of downforce on the rear tires
with minimal aerodynamic drag.
As racers
became smarter, the speed barriers fell: 260 mph toppled
in 1984; 270 in 1986; 280 in 1987; 290 in 1989: and the
magic 300 mph barrier fell before the wheels of former
Funny Car champion Kenny Bernstein on March 20, 1992.
Just seven years later, Tony Schumacher became the first
to top 330 mph in February 1999 in Phoenix. (source
:nhra.com)
