It seems that the majority of Americans use the 1/4 mile to make a decision as to whether a car is fast or not.

Honestly what is the attraction of drag racing? A quick 1/4 mile time really does not dictate the overall performance of a car. I just don't get it and never have, and when it comes to Hondas...well, the FF layout just isn't ideal for drag nor is a small 4 banger engine. In fact, when you do set up a Honda for drag it usually tends to subtract from the qualities that Hondas tend to excel in such as mid and low speed cornering.

How exciting is 10 seconds when you can spend minutes or hours perfecting turns under deviant weather and course conditions? A Lingenfelter Vette does 0-60 in under 2 sec which is crazy impressive, but when the weather turns to ***** and there are turns involved the performance of the car suffers drastically and cheaper, lesser-powered cars will outperform it by a substantial amount.

I just want to know why people use drag times as a benchmark, it's really not indicative of the overall performance of a car and nearly all countries would agree with this with the exception of America and Australia?

 

It's really just a preference.

I live on America and happen to like course tracks more than the 1/4.

 

You'll actually find the majority of HT members in the states prefer spirited driving and auto-x.

 

yea pretty sure almost everyone on HT will prefer tracking over drag racing

 

It has to do with the history of motorsports and automotive hobbies in the US. You go from hotrod lakebed racers in the prewar era to the musclecar era that was defined by low-cost, high-octane fuel; an enormous network of straight, well-paved roads; abandoned WW2 air strips; a huge postwar steel industry; etc. and you have a recipe for straightline racing achieving prominence.

Besides, it's not like we don't care about circuit racing in the USA -- NASCAR is second only to football in viewership.

 

We have a lot of classic muscle cars here (that don't turn at all), long straight roads and stoplights. Drag racing has been a part of the culture for many years before Hondas made it over here.
1/4 mile times are a good indication of vehicle power levels and driver reaction time, not handling or driving skills.
As far as HT members go, I would say that drag-car owners are a smaller percentage of true enthusiasts. The majority of HT members/import owners in CA prefer Auto-X/Circuit, and none of them watch NASCAR ;P

 

Forgot to mention that this is pretty much completely untrue. Corvettes are and always have been among the best handling cars in the world, particularly for their price. It's really a myth that American cars can't corner well. It's based on judgements of what some cars were like decades ago.

 

^ This all day.

 

Because its hard to quantify "fast" otherwise. The only common circuit track used for comparison is Nurburgring but that is more driver than car.

Speaking of slow american cars - Here is a Camaro ZL1 running 7:41 at Nurburgring
[youtube]8mhjGERugh0[/youtube]

 

Gotta go back to the history of honda tuning in the US. A lot of things were pioneered in the westcoast (California to be exact), and the lack of local road circuits coupled with illegal street races really started the drag culture with Hondas. When Battle of the Imports started, this opened the floodgates for performance shops and privateers to build FWD Honda drag racers to break barriers that the general public wouldn't even think is possible, despite having RWD dragsters as the marquee.

And as previously stated, it is easier to quantify things like low timeslips and speed traps down a 1/4 mile stretch. The numbers are also marketable as well because a 1/4 mile track is a 1/4 mile track no matter where you race(before you consider track conditions of course). Unless it's the Nurburgring, nobody cares that you did a 2:12 around Chuckawalla, or recorded the fastest trap speed on Roval.

This is coming from a California native though. The auto-x and time attack scene is growing here finally(you can thank Japanese car culture and organizations like NASA, HPD, Speed Ventures, SCCA, etc), but California still lacks circuit availability to accommodate the growth. We always have to travel very far to get to any circuit.

And ultimately, although FWD Hondas are underestimated on the circuits, it's still the wrong wheel drive for anything over the 250whp mark. Don't get me wrong, that doesn't go to say that a 250whp integra couldn't beat a 400whp EVO around a circuit.