Word: dragsters
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...transmission troubles, concluded that drag racing would be safer, and also faster, if the engine were behind the driver rather than in front--a crazy idea that is now standard.) Post edits Technology and Culture and is also a curator at the Smithsonian Institution. The fine points of dragster design have moved him to write: "I have found no human artifact that pleases me more than an earthshaking, fire-breathing 'digger,' blown and on fuel . . ." What counts in drag racing, he says, is individual ingenuity. The people who have it aren't just hot rodders but a variety of that...
Garlits and his competitors build and drive a class of dragster known as the top fueler--rail thin, about 20 ft. long, with big, sticky rear wheels and a high wing in back. Behind the driver, the engine throws flame from its exhaust headers and makes a noise that starts like a garbage truck under heavy gunfire and increases rapidly to an apocalyptic roar. "It'll blow your nose for you," one fan declares...
...that power puts intense strain on the hardware. (One crew sells souvenirs: "Burnt pistons, $10.") Surviving the succession of runs needed to win a four-day event requires ingenuity on the fly. Driver and crew get as little as 75 min. between races to strip down a devastated dragster and make it run faster than it did before...
Thus when Connie Kalitta wrinkles one of the main struts supporting his wing in a qualifying run at 3 p.m. Friday, he takes only a moment to study the damage. He props a two-by-eight board under the wing, lifting the dragster a couple of inches off the ground. A crew member goes to work on the wrinkle with a welding torch...
Suddenly the dragster sags, except for the propped-up side of the wing; the wrinkled strut has heated up and stretched out. Kalitta jams another two- by-eight between the struts and throws his weight against this lever to fine tune the straightening. After considerable additional work, he steps back to examine the results, which aren't wholly successful. But then, a normal start tends to lift the opposite side of the car anyway. Maybe a crooked wing will counteract that. He raises his hands in a papal blessing and grins. "The torque'll lean it just right," he declares...