No, it's not about just pumping more fuel in, lmao. That's why I like drag racing, it's about the car you build. Drag racing is the only racing where it's really car vs car, not driver vs driver. Sure there is some skill to control a car when you are experiencing 8Gs, but most of it is in the build. And it's not simply more fuel. If that were the case I could put 40lb/hr injectors on my mustang and jump from 270hp to 500hp. But that's not how it works. Much more too it.I must admit I'm not a huge fan of just trying to make things go faster and faster in a straight line all the time. Sure, if you pump that much fuel into something that'll take it it's going to beat a normal car - I don't find that very surprising!
I'm much more fascinated by how computers these days in supercars can adjust various parameters hundreds of times a second to stop a car spinning out in corners on a track, and how they can help off road vehicles gain the most traction possible by very carefully regulating the power going to each wheel. Sure, it may not be as record-breaking in the books of getting something up to ridiculous speeds - but it takes much more skill, research and intellect to figure out than pumping more fuel into a bigger engine!
I must admit I'm not a huge fan of just trying to make things go faster and faster in a straight line all the time. Sure, if you pump that much fuel into something that'll take it it's going to beat a normal car - I don't find that very surprising!
I'm much more fascinated by how computers these days in supercars can adjust various parameters hundreds of times a second to stop a car spinning out in corners on a track, and how they can help off road vehicles gain the most traction possible by very carefully regulating the power going to each wheel. Sure, it may not be as record-breaking in the books of getting something up to ridiculous speeds - but it takes much more skill, research and intellect to figure out than pumping more fuel into a bigger engine!
Amen to that...Underestimating the amount of engineering and work that goes into a Top Fuel engine would be a very big mistake. Sure, the ultimate goal is to shave off those precious milliseconds on a quarter mile, but how it achieves that is nothing short of amazing.
That said, I'm not a big fan of all those computers in supercars nowadays (*ahem* Nissan GT-R *ahem), I believe in solid suspension tuning and no driver aids. Only way to go.
Check out the Grassroots $2009 competition.I think you might have to stretch your budget a little. Suspension work can get expensive quick if you want good dampers.
Amen to that...
My idea of a super car is not one that I bought for $300,000, but one that I built for $2000, that keeps up with the ferraris and lambos.
For $2000, the car I would build would be a Miata, powered by a sbf GT40 5.0