I decided to write this because i had an interesting conversation with a friend about this the Other day. My buddy was sittin there talkin about this 300ZX TT and about how he will walk this and that and someone in the background was like " How many seconds does he run??". They sat there and yacked on about this and that, blah blah blah. " the launch...." " my reaction time" ..... " my 60ft time..." you guys know how its going to go. Then someone asked me how fast my R went down the 1320. I said with my chin up in the air, " the magazine says a stock one runs 14.7 but I don't know, I don't drag" and then the room was filled with silence. The utter voice of silence filled the air and then someone says " can your R walk that 3Z TT?". I admitted to it, " probably not drag racing". Damn, thats when the riot started.... " I thought Type R's were fast". I turned around and looked at this idiot like he was retarded. First of all, sure... 1.8 inline 4 making almost 200 horses with a redline close to a motorcycle's isn't bad but were R's known for handling or for straight line speed? I can get the **** walked outta me on a local street but i think i can put up some decent Competition on the highway where my car really shines. Then the debate started. " My 3z will spank you all over the quarter".
Thats when i started... " thats cool, let me ask you a question. Does your mom drive? Your dad? Sister? little brother? Grandparents? Aunts, uncles, cousins, girlfriends." " yeah, they drive". " great, now tell me. All those people you know that drive, can all of them drive in a straight line? Is it hard for them? If i told all of them to drive down a one way street 4 blocks long, can they do it? Is it hard for you to drive in a straight line? " " yeah, they all can drive in a straight line" Bottom line is this.
Drag Race - 95%car 5% Driver.
Road Racing - 95% Driver 5% car.
Drag Race - Reaction time, knowing how to launch and a lot of money for those damn expensive turbo kits and internals that you have someone else install for you plus some Mickey Thompson Slicks and minor suspension tweaks that help you go in a straight line. Most importantly, the cheaters way of gaining HP ( get ready all you fast and furious freaks) NOS~!~!~!~!~!~!.

Road Racing - How to enter a turn, learning how to use your throttle and brakes. Brake points and how to exit a turn. Finding the right line to take and tuning the car's suspension ie. Spring rates, tire pressure, Toe in/out, camber, castor adjustments and ect.. Most importantly, your car's handling characteristics.
You need almost no skill to have a 10 second car, just a fukload of money to buy some expensive parts to throw in your car, it might require a little effort on your own behalf to gut out the car and stuff to make it lighter but the bottom line is the fact that drag racing doesn't ask for much. Not as demanding, its a womans game.
Road race, it takes more than fancy car parts to be able to take down someone, if you loaded the same kind of money you spend on making a 10 second drag machine into a road race rocket, you still wont' be on top of the game because its more demanding. Driving up a straight line doesn't mean you have skill. It doesn't say you're a bad driver but i think the only reason drag racing is so popular is because you can do it anywhere. Road racing can't be done anywhere. I sit there and have all these people ask me " how many seconds is your Type R". Its retarded because a Type R is not a symbol of import drag racing. Its symbolizes a can of whoop *** on a road course. I witnessed an R chasing down a Lotus Esprit V8 TT. We sit down and talk about kill stories and all this other garbage but once i bring up the R hunting down a Lotus, i don't expect for people to believe me. It just proves my point. Sure its a V8 TT and all. Silly little 4 banger running up against it. Down the 1320, who's most likely gonna win? On the highway though, that R i was in amazed me. No turbo, no NOS, none of that silly stuff. Just good old mechanics taking over the powerband.
Just recently i was out at the Street races down south of Chicago with a few friends just watching some good old american muscle and rice rockets fly up and down. Some guy asked me if the Type R was mine and i gladly answered yes with a smirk. Then they asked if i wanted to run a CRX. First of all, if a silly CRX asked an R to race, most likely he had a motor in there ( which infact he did, B16A ). He asked me if i wanted to run the CRX and i said no. " sorry, this thing doesn't drive in a straight line, it likes to squirt in and out of turns". Those guys had this look on their faces like " yeah, this guy's a lil P*$$y" and stuff. Funny how stupid they look to me after that. I know this was a long one and i do appreciate those of you who took the time to read this. Sorry about the Venting guys, i just really get annoyed by those idiots that ask " how many seconds does it run?".

 

Drag Racing It's fun, when you are not waiting for a run all night
Road Racing Never done it officially, but I have some fun on some curvy back roads and it's pretty damn excelerating

It's all good

 

Drag - Spectator Sport, you get to stand there with everyone else going " Daaaaaamn~!"

You do have a point though, its fun when people are actually running.

 

blah whatever.

-Dave, who was a drag **** but is no more, even if my opinion on drag is that it's boring, same as autox.

 

Damn right Dave.

Drag racing is for pansies

Jason-
who enjoys turning and braking

 

not really ... its a lot to drag racing than many people think ... running a stock or slightly modified car in drag racing doesnt show the realism associated with a pro racer who has a full racecar and the tons of headaches that come with trying to win.

On the flip side, there is so much wear and tear on a motor in roadracing, the amount of brake componenets, oil changes, tire wear, more prone to some amatuer racer losing control of his car and hitting you, etc.

in drag racing, there are different cons ... such as you change oil alot, you prep the car and the slightest leak and oyu are thrown off, the alunches kill your drivetrain, so clutches, differentials, axles get so much abuse ...

So there you have it, I like drag racing because it actually takes skill to run agianst the other guy and beat him, you have ot know how ot launch, how to shift fast, how to keep the car running prestine ... similarly in road racing, know how to take the apex, how to shift, how to pass, when to slow down, etc...

In drag racing, you make money if you knwo how to drive, that helps to buy you the next mod

Greg

 

It's all a matter of preference. There's nothing here to argue about.
Pro Life vs. Pro Choice
Pepsi vs. Coke
Eat camel toe vs. smoke pole

LOL. So let people be.


For the record, I'm Pro Choice, drink Pepsi, dig camel toe and drag race.

 

and you forgot ... JUN vs. TODA

Greg

 

Camel toe owNz!

 

Maybe people don't like drag racing because they were never good at it. So they make fun of it.

 

**** ON JUN!!!


j/k

apples vs. oranges

.....many of us like BOTH.

 

LOL

 

I'll leave this to someone else. I'm sure SOMEONE'S got some kind of descriptive picture. LOL.

Camel toe rocks.

Pole smokers don't.

 

Straight vs gay respectivly.

 

Let's see,

Camel Toe = Bearded clam
Smoke Pole = Pounding pole of Fury

 

Wow!!! You have 3 friends now? Thats 2 more than last week.

Bryan

 

Being one of George’s 3 friends, from what I was told I "was" pretty good at it. I just lost interest.

Vader hates drag racing because he sucks at it!

Bryan

 

Actually, I hate it because I fell asleep from the boredom

 

The thing about drag racers (or street racers) that really kills me is the "I can drive" or "I don't need a HPDE I already know how to drive fast, I race on the street all the time" comments, simple fact is that there are very few naturals in the driving world. It is just like anything else you need to be taught. I think that I can drive, I have done a pro school, more DE's than I can count, a super bike school, and I competivily race shifters. Do I still have alot to learn hell yes.

Drag racing will never teach you how to actually push your cars limits in other than one direction. I think that the only real improvement in driving that dragging will make is the reaction time between your eyes and your right foot, that isn't very challenging.

However there is alot to be said for the amount of work that goes into a drag car.

 

Why do people say this? Other than wear items I don't think that road racing puts much additional strain on your car. Yes tires and brakes will go faster, much faster, but those are wear items. On the other side of that is in drag racing you are going to go through trannys and clutches, CV's, and all other kinds of junk. Think about this I don't know anyone that has had syncro problems due to road racing, I do know some that have drom banging grars during a drag.

"If you know how to drive"??? It isn't about driving, it is about reaction time. Remember part of driving is turing and braking too.

 

 

That makes you sound pretty ignorant.

Even to someone who doesn't drag race.

 

I've done my bits of both. Personally, from my fathers side, I've acquired a lot of drag racing and big time FI motor building. He's had a couple of Vortech and Novi Cobras, now onto a Grand National and hes alwasy been a straight line kinda guy.

I my self enjoy both.

Taken HPDE events do require alot more driver skill, it is still fun to see what your car runs down the strip every once in a while

I vote a split ticket

 

why? Joo can't do either!!

 

Please enlighten me? Because if drag racing includes things like correct apex, threshold braking, being smooth, and so on, but I missed it let me know. My point is that yes there is letting the clutch out, managing traction during the launch, geting the shift points right, but on equally matched cars reaction time is what wins the race. If the cars are unequally matched then the one with big HP is going to win. In road racing where is comes to driver ability a 120hp crx si with the right driver will smoke a 400hp twin turbo Porsche with the wrong driver over a 2 mile road course. So again please enlighten me.