[HN Gopher] In the Rockets' Red Glare: The past and future of ho...
___________________________________________________________________
In the Rockets' Red Glare: The past and future of hot-rodding in
America
Author : delichon
Score : 23 points
Date : 2024-11-28 20:19 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (harpers.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (harpers.org)
| johnea wrote:
| The article is mostly focused on race tracks, and especially drag
| racing. But to me "hot rodding" explicitly means street racing.
|
| And in street racing, and driving fast responsive cars in
| general, electric is the future.
|
| I just recently started owning one, and it drives better than any
| other vehicle I have ever driven.
|
| The instant acceleration, the very fine power control, and the
| weight distribution make it more responsive and better handling
| than literally any other car I've ever driven (and I've been
| driving for 50 years).
| hristov wrote:
| You are absolutely right about electric cars and how fun it is
| to drive them. I just want to make the obligatory statement
| that street racing is very dangerous for innocent people and
| nobody should do it or encourage it.
| eropple wrote:
| Yup--electric performance vehicles are _unreal_ when you first
| give one a try. I test drove a Ford Lightning this week and it
| is ridiculous what a 7,000-lb vehicle can do with that
| powertrain (to the point where honestly maybe it should require
| a CDL to drive). Just for kicks I also tried a Mach-E, which
| was the same kind of zip but without the novelty of being in a
| three-ton monster. Both felt glued to the road and they were
| real pleasures to drive.
|
| I really wanted to pull the trigger on the Lightning, but it
| really was Too Big (won't even really fit in my driveway).
| Instead I picked a PHEV Escape SUV that'll become my wife's in
| 4-5 years (so we retain gas ranges on at least one vehicle) and
| I'll reevaluate what I can get in electric then. The Escape
| PHEV, however, has all the other advantages except the instant
| torque; I've never had a vehicle so able to finely control
| power and the eCVT smooths out the kind of lagging a
| conventional transmission has on hills and the like. Using zero
| gas for an hour-long drive is a nice plus, too.
|
| The future of cars, including and maybe especially fast cars,
| is exciting.
| roamerz wrote:
| >>And in street racing, and driving fast responsive cars in
| general, electric is the future.
|
| Street racing is entirely too dangerous and of course illegal.
| You don't have to race to take part in the street scene, which
| in that scenario the actual power to weight ratio is somewhat
| irrelevant in itself. What is relevant to me, personally, is
| the ambience that surrounds a supercharged radically cammed V8
| rumbling down the street. That will give me goosebumps every
| time. The power is in it's growl, not necessarily it's bite. I
| don't know how you replicate that in an electric vehicle and I
| think that feeling transfers to the racetrack as well. I would
| rather watch a 3-4 second top fuel race rather than a 2-3
| second electric car race.
|
| Oh yeah if you ever do happen to catch one of those top fuel
| events don't miss watching them rebuild the engines and the
| 'let's make sure it runs' startups. The fumes will cause tears
| in your eyes and your lungs will hurt but it's as good or
| better than the actual race.
| drmpeg wrote:
| My mechanic told me the future of racing is hydrogen. You
| gotta have noise.
| smileysteve wrote:
| You really dont though, turbos cut the noise in half in the
| recent years and it's considerably nicer to watch a race.
|
| Recently, the gt3 Porsche cup at an F1 event; you need
| earplugs for the gt3s 1000' away, but the F1 cars you can
| have a conversation, not damage your hearing (because of
| the turbos)
| Animats wrote:
| Power hasn't been a problem in racing for decades now. All the
| major racing circuits, from F1 to NASCAR, have power limits in
| some form. It's maintaining ground contact that's hard.
|
| There was an electric dragster, the Lead Wedge, in 1969.[1] It
| was really crude but performed OK. There was enough unhappiness
| about an electric doing so well that the sponsoring battery
| company didn't do it again. Their main customer was auto
| companies.
|
| The fastest motorcycle is currently an electric.[2] Somebody
| took it up to Alice's Restaurant above Woodside and drove
| Skyline on it. Which is a scary thought, if you know the area.
|
| [1] https://www.hotrod.com/features/batteries-and-a-salt-
| februar...
|
| [2] https://newatlas.com/lightning-ls218-review-ls-218/36470
| rascul wrote:
| > The article is mostly focused on race tracks, and especially
| drag racing. But to me "hot rodding" explicitly means street
| racing.
|
| Hot rodding about fast cars. Racing doesn't need to come into
| the picture at all to have a hot rod.
| serf wrote:
| >Hot rodding about fast cars.
|
| the whole hotrod culture produced those fast cars in order to
| compete with the police, it then turned into in-group
| competition, and then formal racing.
|
| 'hot rodding' wouldn't exist without competition.
|
| The first SCTA style 'hot-rods' were 'souped up' ford
| flatheads that were lucky to have over 80 horsepower going
| for _top speed runs_.
|
| What i'm saying is that 'racing' was before 'fast' in the
| history of hot-rodding.
|
| p.s. this also applies to the almost-entirely-disconnected
| very early European car scene. It was racing events and
| famous individuals that drove the entire culture -- this then
| lead to 'fast cars'. The history of the Mille Miglia comes to
| mind.
| smileysteve wrote:
| Amecdotally, I was behind a Tesla 3 performance at a recent
| track day; it was lowered on eibach springs, but had more mass
| than my stock height 2004 bmw 3 series.
|
| It couldn't handle the Gs on a slightly negative camber
| straight, as opposed to I could floor it there. I definitely
| expected it to clear me on the straights faster.
| whartung wrote:
| If you have not been to a Top Fuel drag race, and have the
| opportunity to go, you should go. They are quite the spectacle.
| Being there, hearing, feeling, and seeing those 10,000HP monsters
| fly down the track is worthy of experiencing live, at least once.
| The kind of thing you can't watch on TV.
|
| I can say the same for a Monster Truck rally. Go there and
| embrace your inner 10 year old watching those machines Move.
| (And, boy, can they move!)
|
| Bring earplugs.
|
| There's more to the sports than the pinnacle of achievement.
| There are innumerable classes within drag racing, something for
| everyone. It's not a "solved" problem by any means. Folks will
| continue to try and master the start, getting traction, keeping
| that beastly powered thing straight in the lane, trying to not
| choke on their beating heart that has surged into their throat.
|
| Bracket racing is a hoot where folks bring whatever they like,
| and they're rated by time (i.e. a "time bracket"). Whether you're
| running a old 60's hot rod, a Jet Powered car, or anything else,
| if you can run within the time, it's pretty much fair game. And
| it can be fun to watch, and real fun to participate in.
|
| Racing of all kinds can be a fun culture to be around.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-11-28 23:00 UTC)