exdeath
Lifer
- Jan 29, 2004
- 13,679
- 10
- 81
Originally posted by: Aikouka
Originally posted by: Vic
Uh oh... you brought up a DSM Eclipse. Now M4H is going have to tell us all about walking cranks.
FWD? What year/model? Going off your username, sounds like a 2G GS-T Spyder, yeah?
Haha if anyone walks one, I have a 6-bolt 4G63T with an extra manual (i.e. larger cams compared to auto) turbo head I'd sell them.
As for my Altima... I donno... I don't race >_>. It has great acceleration though, but the torque steer is just horrid at 70mph (highway driving).
EDIT:
After reading another section in here, M4H, I'm one of those people that has a higher belief that performance on a curved track (a mountain pass or touge could be considered one) is better than a straight-away. They also test the driver's technique better than just testing his ability to shift at the proper time. You know if they end up in a ditch or off the tarmac, they're probably one of those people that you mentioned (the overzealous high school fast and the furious type
I'll be honest and say what everyone knows. Drag racing in a straight line on the street is really a big penis contest to prove who has the fastest newest most expensive car or to exert power over someone to feel macho. It's just an extention of underlying human nature to desire to be bigger, faster, stronger, etc. than someone else. When someone starts revving at you at the light, they aren?t bragging about their racing skills, they are saying their car is better/shinier/more expensive, just like they do when flashing their cell phones around, post computer specs in their sigs, etc. Revving at a light is communicating their intent to rub it in when the light turns green by blowing you away and showing you how inadequate your car is compared to theirs, just the same as overclocking to stay in the 3D Mark top 10. Sad but true, even though 3D Mark never killed anyone, but that?s what most casual spontaneous stoplight racing is about.
Unfortuneately it?s usually just stupid little kids who know nothing whose parents buy them new cars (like Alienware PCs) when they turn 16, esp. more expensive flashier gizmo laden ones like BMWs, etc, that are obviously going to be faster than the Kia that someone else buys with their own money working 3 jobs. When these kids encounter someone who can waste them, they can't fathom it since like a spoiled brat they usually get their way all the time. Much like a spoiled brat throwing a fit, they refuse to admit defeat and give it up, so they push their car and inexperienced driving abilities well beyond their limits. Combine that with typical teenage immortality, and you have trouble.
Summary: street racing in a straight line isn't about skill, it's just a bunch of snobby rich kids showing off their parents money.
In a real drag race though when you are talking 4 second ETs at over 300 mph there is ALOT more skill involved than most people give credit for. Not only for the drivers, but the tuners as well flexing every ounce of engine knowledge they possibly can, limited not by money but only by the periodic table of elements (i.e.: material strength, etc.). They basically rebuild a 8000 HP engine running on liquid explosive every pass down the track in a matter of minutes. For the driver its a race against the clock, traction, timing, and the other driver. For the tuner, its a race against only himself and physics. That to me is where the fun is, ridiculous power and racing as an application of F=ma physics. I'm not talking handling and power to weight ratios plodding along in corners, I'm talking about what goes on inside the engine itself. Energy densities, fluid dynamics of air flow, tensile and compressive rod forces, moving parts always kept on the verge of melting with .001" clearance changing direction 233 times every second at 7000 RPM, etc, in order to make the most powerful and efficient engine possible with a given platform.
A top fuel rail dragster is the fastest accelerating vehicle on the planet, far faster than even a rocket or space shuttle =D Pick any car in the world that your heart desires, cross the starting line from a 200 mph roll at the same time a dragster starts from a dig. The dragster will school you every time. Fathom that for a minute and the engineering feat that makes it possible. A top fuel engine is one of the modern wonders of the world
If you don't think so, take a 8000 HP dragster engine back to the late 1800's, early 1900's and ask the pioneers of internal combustion engines what they think after describing energy, work, power, flow, molecular science, potential energy, etc, at a time when 20 HP was as record.Nope, no skill at all, anyone can just pick up a brush and put a renaissance painter to shame
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