I've spent a lot of time at the drag races , as a spectator and as a driver , this video shows what it like to see Top Fuel for the first time in person. Short vid - 1:28 long.



The sound is SO loud , your clothes vibrate. You can feel it down to your bones.


If you have never been in person , it is something everyone should do at least once in life.

I favor not one but two nitro burning motors on one motorcycle frame ! Them boys are plumb nuts !

I use to take my 67 Camaro to the Sumerduck dragway in Virginia and run on grudge night, and I took my 64 corvette to the drag strip in Orlando, FL and ran it on grudge night. It was fun.

Cragar...what's the best ET you evah had...??

Back in 1974...a bunch of us camped in line...ovah night...at New England Dragway..to see all kinds

Of drag racing...but the main event...was a field of 32 Nitro Burning

Funny Cars .

And yes ..Jungle Pam,stole the show !!!

Never been to one. My bother in law owned a guess what he had was called a rail. He did all the mechanic work on it and had a long trailer to haul it in. Only sport that he was in to my knowledge. When wife and I would go on Sunday to mother in laws house races were only think on tv. He was into it but never got interested. To busy hunting fishing and trapping. Looking back maybe should have gone to one race.

In the process of putting together a truck to race. Always wanted to race my Harley but figured safer this way.

Use to go to the gateway nationals every year in st.louis. fun time , long night! But super fun

I'm a budget racer. Pricey hobbie once you get into the powerful stuff.

I ran a series of 1st gen Valiant/Barracuda bodies - 1964 1/2 - 1966 body shells.

Ran with a 225cid slant six heavily modified running low 14's to high 13's
Dropped in a 318 V8 and later a 340 V8 marine block getting into the mid to low 12's

Costs a lot more to go faster , much more maintenance and parts costs. A little better to run slower , much cheaper and you can do it without going broke.

I did get a chance to run a front engined rail gasser once @ 9.88- 133mph

Family use to race an old big block dodge dart, tubbed out, whole 9 yards. Sucker would pull the front wheels and pop the drivers door open.

My ol man came home with a 1973 smog motor 454...with a turbo 400 still attached ...from a junk yard.

The motor was still warm ...lol.

I stuffed that combo into my 57 Chevy station wagon.

Put some closed chambered heads on it...to up the compression from 8.5 : 1

Stuck a Sid Erson cam in it...nevah looked at the bottom end.

My last pass was in 1979....so with 46 year old technology...I was running

12.69 @ 108.88....my daily driver too .

Had about 600.00 into the motor and trans

US 30 drag strip had the Green Monster rocket car there once there was a 2 car garage they used as an office behind the “ Christmas tree” lights it ended up moving that build off of it’s foundation.

Nessy, as you know, I was a station wagon guy too! My 57 wagon was also stuffed with a 425 HP 396, that run 13:50’s in street trim, headers closed and no slicks. Raced a 1960 two door wagon for quite a few years also, back in the seventies till the early eighties. I run R/stock, formula 3, which was AHRA rules, which the car had to weigh 3960 pounds, with a 292 cu inch and a two barrel carb. Old car ran in the basement of the thirteens, with a best of 13.01 at 107 MPH in a quarter. I put a holley four barrel on it one time, and it went 12.63. When they went to a three bulb tree, that pretty well, shut me out, as I had to stage and get the motor revved up to launch the car. Tried an automatic, but I needed to launch at seven grand, and you couldn’t get a converter then that would stall nearly enough to make the car launch. Those were fun years!

Sumerduck is still.at it.
MIR is a few minutes from me.
Had a pair of '67 Camaros myself!

All of the sports people say you need to see live to experience dont compare to a live drag race.

Yup, you FEEL Top Fuel.
It's visceral

X2

You not only feel it , you smell it. Unburnt nitromethane fumes and burnt rubber.


I've taken a bunch of non-dragstrip people for the first ever time to a top fuel/funny car race.

The guy in the video personifies the optimal response to being exposed to that for the first time ever............


" This. Is. The. Best. Day. Of. My. Life. "

57 Chevy, 327 full house, Muncie 4 speed crash box, Pontiac station wagon rear end.
Lots of fun when I could keep u-joints intact. Ran at Kearney, NE track and a private strip.
Roy

Nitro cars are unbelievable machines and something to see.

The rest bore me, but you can walk the pits and watch them rebuild them while the others run.

I watch "race day", all day long, out my windshield. I am not about to pay to watch more of it.