A note from the stands...
As a personal cut at this from an observer's viewpoint, my son, grandson and I recently attended an NHRA Nationals event held in nearby Maple Grove, Pennsylvania, in order to watch the Top Fuelers and Funny Cars run. I've been at drag strips many times over the last thirty years or so, but it has been at least that long since I've gone to actually watch an event, instead of participate in time trials or some such (Corvette Days, etc.).
We get a parking spot somewhere within the zip code
, and on the trek toward the stands, I get to ogle the assembled automotive collection.
There must be a ton of hard-core drag fans around the country, because there are hundreds of mobile homes, fifth wheel and standard trailers in attendance, many with out-of-state plates. Most seem to be top-end luxury models, with a fair number of converted top-end buses as well.
Note that I didn't conduct a tour of the parking lots, but automotively speaking, the rest of the assembled multitude that I passed by seemed to be tilted toward the performance spectrum, with quite a few Vettes, Camaros and Mustangs (from various years) around, but also a surprising (to me) number of German executive hot rods around, including Audis, a sprinkling of "63" cars from Mercedes, two M5s and two current M3s - one of which deserved special mention. It was an Alpine White model parked next to a major pathway, and it was pristine enough to make you think it had been washed right after it was parked.
The thing is, this drag race crowd tended to be ogling the car as folks passed by, and I'm hearing "Nice", "Wow!", "Thumbs up!" and other such positive exclamations, some of which were M3-technical in nature, leading me to believe that many folks in attendance were pretty broadly focussed in terms of automotive fandom.
I found this a bit surprising, since I probably had some preconceived notions that I wasn't aware of.
In any event, I don't know how drag race fans compare to, say, Raiders fans in terms of overall decorum, but I can tell you there was a bunch of beer being consumed at tailgate parties and in the stands. Yet all seemed fairly calm. Never gave my parking spot a thought - unlike when attending a pro football game in Oakland.
Meanwhile, a word (or two, or...) about watching professional drag racing.
If you haven't done it, do it.
There are four classes in professional drag racing. In order of speed and quickness, they are: Pro Stock Motorcycle, Pro Stock, Fuel Competition (funny cars) and Top Fuel (dragsters).
The bikes are comprised mostly of Harley Davidson, Buell and Suzuki entries, essentially pitting cubic inches against rpm. The current composite record is a 6.777 @ 199.26 MPH, held by a Buell and Harley Davidson, respectively. The thing about Pro Stock Motorcycle is, I simply cannot imagine holding onto a critter that is essentially hitting 200 MPH from rest in less than seven seconds. I haven't ridden in a bit more than a decade, but I can tell you that opening up my last 11-flat at 120+ motorcycle from rest was a heart-pounding experience. 6.777 @ 199.26? There'd be a yellow mist following me on such a run.
Pro Stock is fascinating in that these cars are full-bodied door slammers running normally aspirated on carburetors and gasoline. Granted, they are running 500 cubic inch (max) V8s, but a composite 6.477 @ 213.57 mph? Normally aspirated on gasoline? Incredible.
When it comes to the fuel cars, I can capture the experience in two short sentences:
You don't watch the fuel cars run. Instead, they happen to you.
Let me talk about Top Fuel in regard to numbers. They run the cars for only 1000 feet now, because they were getting so fast that they were having difficulty slowing them down within the confines of the runoff area after the finish line at many tracks. This change gave them another 320 feet of parachute/braking time, which turns out to be an ample amount for safety. At least currently.
The current record for Top Fuel at 1000 feet is a 3.735 @ 327.90 mph.
Think about that. Doing some elementary arithmetic, that's almost exactly four Gs of average acceleration over that distance.
Average!
Furthermore, using data from the 660 foot (1/8th mile) measurement to the 1000 foot finish line shows that these cars are averaging over 2.5 Gs from around 280 mph to the finish, which is hard to believe. Of course, they're said to be making somewhere around 8000 horsepower from their 500 cubic inch V8s and are amazingly traction limited. They run a giant spoiler mounted high above the rear axle, and as they hit speed (100 mph in just under a second), that increasing downward pressure allows them to sequentially engage a multi-plate clutch as speeds rise, only giving full power to the wheels as they approach the finish line. You can watch from behind as they launch, with clutch dust billowing out from between the giant rear slicks. Engine speed is nearly constant from the start through the finish line, and the clutch plates are all done after a single sub-four-second run.
These cars are said to burn about seven gallons of fuel in a single, sub-four-second pass.
Think about seven one-gallon cans of fuel sitting in front of you.
You couldn't spill it that fast.
OK, that's just data. The thing is, sitting perhaps 250 feet up-track from the start, halfway up the stands and around 65-70 feet from the track's edge, the sheer physical sound
pressure as the cars passed by at somewhere over 200 mph was more than palpable. It was pretty much overwhelming. They say that if you stand by the fence at the finish line, the sound wave will actually force you back as the cars pass by.
All that said, these words can't fully convey the stupendous fury of a Top Fuel car during a full pass, much less
two Top Fuel cars side by side during a run.
Funny Cars are nearly as quick (current composite record is 3.995 @ 318.99) and just as loud, plus they are said to accelerate even a bit harder than the Top Fuelers between the 660 foot mark and the finish line because of better aerodynamics. We're talking an average acceleration of 3.6 Gs here, with better than 2.6 Gs at the top end.
For me, the thing about Funny Cars is that the driver sits just
behind the engine, rather than in front of it as in the Top Fuel cars, and he or she is essentially enclosed within a tiny compartment with a roof, shared with an 8000 horsepower raging beast.
Not me.
Bottom line in my opinion is that regardless of your interest in drag racing, or even general interest in either racing or things automotive, you ought to go watch the NHRA National drags at least once. Remember. You don't watch. They happen to you.
Bruce
and no I don't know if it is true or not, just a good read 
