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jalopnik goes drag
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racing news
Ashley Force Wins Funny Car Race, Seriously
After Danica Patrick won her first Indy race, there was a lot of noise from talking heads, with serial bloviators like Pedro de la Rosa and Gregg Doyel weighing in on the topic of women in motorsport. So, to shut up all the skeptics, Ashley Force won at yesterday's NHRA Southern Nationals to become the first female driver to win a national Funny Car event. The victory came against her dad, the legendary John Force, denying him of what would have been his 1000th career win. Her final 1/4-mile run was 4.837 seconds at 320.36 MPH— lets see you macho guys do that without needing to change your underwear. More »
novelties
Star Raider Blasts Alien Scum With Jet Engines
This sci-fi wet dream is Star Raider, a ground act for the 2007 Naval Base Ventura County Air Show. The dragster is powered by two Rolls Royce Viper jet engines and driven by builder and owner Bruce Abbott. Why it's shaped like a melted Buran and runs at air shows is anybodies guess, but the key point here is two jet engines on a drag racer. That's some serious thrust there, a little digging around tells us the least thrust one of these babies puts out is 2000 lbs. Double that and tweak for more power and you've got the makings for a face stuck in permasmile.[Air and Space and MagicalPower]
question of the day
OK Then: What About Drag Racing?
You all had such strong reactions to our little NASCAR query that we're going to keep it going. So, for those of you who bitched and moaned about, "turn left, turn left, turn left, turn left," here's a motorized endeavor that features no turning whatsoever. Just machines barreling straight down a quarter mile runaway. Totally lost on Europeans (who the hell cares about 402.336 meters?) drag racing is about as American as it gets. Half the kids I went to high school with had Chevelles and '55 Bel Airs that could (supposedly) run in the 11s. And these were 16-year-olds. And we will be the first to admit that the times and speeds being achieved by modern top fuel dragsters are mind boggling. 4.5 seconds at 330 mph doesn't even make sense, let alone the fact that drivers are subjected to 6 Gs under acceleration. That said, we find drag racing pretty dull and would rather watch NASCAR. Also, many complained that drifting is nothing but an exhibition. Pot kettle black much? More »
drag racing
Ed "The Ace" McCulloch Grand Marshall of California Hot Rod Reunion
The Crew Chief of the Brut Racing but no longer by Faberge Funny Car driven by Ron Capps is coming back to Bakersfield this weekend as Grand Marshall of the NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion. The Ace's qualifications for the job include hammering the Northwind Top Fuel dragster to the number one spot on the Drag News Mr. Eliminator list in the late '60s, and running the Revellution Plymouth Duster Funny Car to five out of seven finals victories in the '70s. The Ace hopes to have some good times in Bakersfield like they did on the road back in the day.Today's drivers have a different role than in the old days. They have sponsor commitments and race press all week, and then drive on the weekend. Not many of them work on the car. Not only did we drive the race car, we worked on them, and drove the tow vehicles down the highways. Today we race 23 three-day events. Back then we could race 100 one-night stands!McCulloch's old pal Jack Coonrod has rebuilt the Northwind and is his on the way to Bakersfield with the dragster. So are we. Stay tuned as the week unfolds and we head up to Famoso Raceway to catch all this weekend's action. Full press release and event information after the jump. More »
crash
Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! -- Dragster Crash!
And elsewhere in Australian muscle-car news, an event at the Brisbane drags over the weekend is giving a case of the squirms to the world's racing fans and the women who tolerate them. A massive, corkscrew fuckdown at 310 miles per hour left a driver A-ok. Damn, those safety harnesses and fireproof suits are getting good.
retro
Will The Green Mamba Ever Strike Again?
Jet dragsters are so batshit loony, so excessive, that it takes a hard hard indeed not to love them. The tale of the Green Mamba really tugs at the ol' heartstrings; built in '68 by madman Doug Rose, who then took the Mamba on the dragstrip circuit for decades of afterburner-blastin' good times, the car was ripped off from his apartment parking lot by scumbags who gutted it and sold off most of the components. Now Rose has the husk of the Green Mamba back and is trying to put it- his only source of income- back together. Let's hope he finds a source for another one of those toothed helmets. More »
clips
Classic Top Gear: Hamster Fires Up A Jet Car. No, Not THAT Jet Car!
Now that BBC Worldwide's signed a deal to allow certain Top Gear clips from the Beeb's vaults see computer screens worldwide via YouTube, we've been treated to all sorts of fun clips from the past. Like this little run-in Richard Hammond had with a Nissan
sema
Ezerioha! Bizimoto's Honda Insight Import Dragster
Nigerian boy genius and motorsports engineer, 'Bisi Ezerioha brought what we've dubbed the Most Unlikliest Dragster to SEMA. The MENSA member's 9.8-second Honda Insight is an odd duck among its fellow Honda import competitors on the IDRA, IDRC and NHRA circuits. But under the hood, the hybrid drivetrain been swapped with a SOHC Honda mill. Maybe his next one will get proper Ben Franklin power — not that the race series boys would allow it. More »
custom cars/hot rods
Contents Under Pressure! Peugeot Water Dragster
The gang at Winding Road uncovered this clip of a water-pressure dragster in the guise of a Peugeot 206 CC. It's said the thing manages 15,000 lbs. of thrust by way of the same physics as that pump rocket mom said would kill the dog if it fell over when you were trying to launch it. This one would most definitely put out an eye, or keep your suits fresh. More »
custom cars/hot rods
One Salty Bug: A Nostalgia Dragster from France
A reader from France sent us a link to his Flickr collection of shots from a Bug project he and his compatriots (the Flat Bangers crew of Brach) did in the early '90s. The Salty Bug, as it was named (bogue de sel?) was done up Bonneville style, with a chopped top and air-slippery wheel covers.I scanned and uploaded a pile of pics taken 15 years ago when a bunch of friends decided to go barn door engineering on a lo-profile beetle dragster. The feasibility study was done on an Amiga 500 computer in my bedroom using a paint-like software. The finished product was intended to raise interest in nostalgia drag racing in a country France were all the available drag strips have curves and corners.We don't know if he made the Salt Flats 130 mph club or not. Maybe the fleur de sel club. More »
novelties
