Do I Sound Old School?
 

With all the talk these days about electric vehicles, how would that affect the sport we all love?

Now the truth is that I’ve yet to have driven any of the new electric vehicles. If someone wants to loan me one for a couple of days, I’d be glad to give it a whirl, which may or may not change my mind as far they’re concerned. But I can tell you that those new EV cars and trucks look pretty impressive. I happened to see a Tesla running at the track recording elapsed times in the high six-second zone on the eighth-mile, which roughly computes to high-10s in the quarter. Pretty impressive from a somewhat stock vehicle; an expensive one but probably no more impressive than the COPO, Cobra Jets and Challengers you could purchase from the factories and immediately have a nine-second race car. However, I did notice the Tesla being charged between rounds by a gas-powered generator. Sounds like some sort of oxymoron but…

I believe it was 2019 at the Winternationals when the eCOPO Camaro debuted in Pomona, and I was there to witness its initial runs. Elapsed times in the nine-second zone with wheels up launches were pretty impressive except for… The one thing those of us sitting on the guard wall agreed was the lack of noise.

Drag racing has always been a very visceral experience; the sights and sounds invoking an almost unnatural feeling, one which shakes your body from head to toe. Stand between two Top Fuel cars on the starting line and you’ll get the idea. And what could be more thrilling than hearing the crescendo coming from a set of tuned headers as it winds through the gears (okay so maybe there are only two gears in a Powerglide, but you get the idea.).

I read a couple of weeks ago where there’s a new target which raises the fleet average fuel economy requirement by 25-percent from 32 mpg to 40 mpg. President Biden had previously proposed a 38-mpg requirement in August and has encouraged automakers to transition their lineups to 50-percent electric vehicles by 2030. So what would that do for drag racing?

Once again, drag racing has always intrigued some from the aspect of noise. These electric cars lack that one aspect of the sport. Is that good or bad? Don’t forget the problems of noise which have plagued quite a few tracks across the country. Will something like this help?

And while I’m on the subject of EVs, what about these cars which will almost drive themselves? Talk about hands free! And then you have those which will park themselves and even back-up a trailer into a spot. And now we have the Ford F150s which utilize some sort of battery power that can provide power to a home should the power go out.

I guess it all comes down to the amazing amount of technology available today. Those of us old enough to remember the animated television show The Jetsons probably laughed at some of the devices and elaborate robotic contraptions on the show. Accordingly, I believe the show was set in the year 2062, but there’s little doubt that some of the devices on that show are in use today. Of course, then you have to remember the Back to the Future movies set in 2015. Naturally that was seven years ago and I don’t think any of the devices from that movie were in use back then.

Then question is: Even with the reduction in the use carbon-type fuels, we still need some sort of power to charge the proposed 50-percent of new cars powered by batteries. What would that do to the power grid in our world? So many questions with maybe the most important one… Do I sound old school to you? -JOHN DiBARTOLOMEO

Re: Do I Sound Old School?
 

Just think how much fun it will be to sit in the stands and drink beer and watch your car
go down the track with no noise.

Re: Do I Sound Old School?
 

Hey, in bracket racing you could have the "Quiet" bracket & the "Loud" bracket. :D

Re: Do I Sound Old School?
 

We as a group have control of our destiny on this issue. NHRA can initiate these classes but if no one participates in the class then it will cease to exist. It won’t effect me or my racing as I am nearing the end of my racing career in the next 10 years or so. Most existing racers will continue with ICE powered race cars. There might be a few that do the electric thing but it will be slow to come.
Really our biggest threat to our sport is the democrats and their “Green” stupidity. They would loose their minds seeing us burning rubber, leaded race fuel and driving huge fuel guzzling tow rigs across the country. If they get full control of our nation all forms of motor racing could be in jeopardy.

Re: Do I Sound Old School?
 

I re-built an engine for a friend and because of parts did not get it done till around October of last year

He didn't get much chance to race it so went to the big $$ race down in Florida for New Years

It's a footbrake bracket car and the owner also has Stocker's....

He got beat by a Tesla in Florida and the Tesla had an .008" package on one run.....

I was watching the race a little and saw the Tesla run back to back identical ET's

I see them more and more in my area on the roads....

For some people they work great and there are cheaper cars available

Will they ever be popular in Drag Racing.......I doubt it.....

Re: Do I Sound Old School?
 

how will they add or take away hp? if it has a soft factor I'm sure someboby will run one. I like electric for my razor, not my driver. sorry, but I'm old school

Re: Do I Sound Old School?
 

I suspect there will be a huge amount of issues with the charging time say for example use the Socialist state of the west coast as an example wow if everyone has an electric car being charged all at once what will happened of course if this ever happens we will be racing in heaven by then so the young people will have to solve their own problems they created by their decisions made to do whatever the agenda is with electric cars LOL

Re: Do I Sound Old School?
 

I’d rather watch and listen to a 10 second car that sounds like a old M/P than a almost silent 8 second or however fast they end up running silent car.

Terry

Re: Do I Sound Old School?
 

Now a question what will happen if an electric car gets into a wreck will it provide a spark explosion ??? Just asking for a friend

Re: Do I Sound Old School?
 

Drag Racings 2 important factors to my experience are smell(That awesome sweet smell of Methanol or leaded gasoline that makes me giddy or that incredible sound coming from open or muffled headers that cant be replicated are 2 very important aspects of motorsports!!!!!! Without those 2 I am done and finding something else to do with my life....

Re: Do I Sound Old School?
 

Of course it did .
I , for one would not line my car up against anything that didn't burn varying levels of oxygen.

Re: Do I Sound Old School?
 

I would think that as as long as traction remains the same on a EV the et should remain the same. The only bad air for a EV would be high winds from run to run.

Re: Do I Sound Old School?
 

Yes. You also sound like you have some common sense. People think EVs run on unicorn farts.

I don't care if they run them at the track. Anything that helps a track operator pay the bills is OK with me.

But I have zero interest in them. And I don't want to see any traditional classes being made to accommodate them. Let them form their own organizations.

Re: Do I Sound Old School?
 

This is something safety people will need to be trained and equipped for so they can deal with one in an accident without getting electrocuted or killed themselves.

Body shops, repair shops, first responders and rescue people have specific equipment and training to deal with them. They can be dangerous if you don't know what you are doing.

Who's working at a drag strip that knows how to deal with one when it gets driven into a wall?

https://www.tesla.com/firstresponders

Re: Do I Sound Old School?
 

Since racers are always testing and tunning their cars I have an idea on a certain time period and all at once all the people in the west coast state turn on all their electrical devices at once throughout their home,plug in their electric cars charging system, and see what happens Just saying just testing the system just to see :)

Re: Do I Sound Old School?
 

^^^ this

Re: Do I Sound Old School?
 

NHRA has had a category for Electric Vehicles in the Rules book for a few years now, although other than a couple of Teslas in regular bracket classes, I can not recall ever seeing any. Last year I saw a Tesla small SUV type car at the local dragstrip, no idea what the name of the model was, it ran a couple of low 12s at 110 MPH, on street tires, assume it was all wheel drive, but I can`t say for certain. Rather impressive for a daily driver "soccer mom" type vehicle, but holds about as much interest to me as a trip to the dentist for a root canal.

Re: Do I Sound Old School?
 

With all the rush to electrification (with GM seemingly leading the way) one has to wonder when they'll stop pushing out COPO's, Drag Pak, etc. It just seems to be contrary to how the Big 3 (i.e. big Labor) are courting the current administration at every turn. Think EV's are a great alternative for many but the infrastructure is FAR from supporting mass adoption and thereby eliminating ICE vehicles. Agriculture, transportation and RV industries are no closer to any kind of penetration by EV designs so things will continue on for quite some time until all of us "old school' folks pass the mantle to generations that will never embrace ICE racing formats like we have. The hordes of Jr. Dragsters may delay the inevitable but it will not stop it, IMO it's just the natural progression of things. The steady loss of tracks is just another sign that it will become increasingly difficult for the average person to fund a racing program. I really enjoyed the Class Racing Today interview of Cal Method, would recommend it to anyone. What he and Mary Ann were able to accomplish based on pure passion for the sport and the comradery with so many like spirits speaks to a by gone time that many of us can reminisce about and try to recapture in some form but the younger generations simply don't have that fixated in their brains as we do. BTW, I was at Indy 1967,1968,1969 and I recall the hordes of sedan deliveries Cal talked about along with Wild Willy having one hand on the wing, Dyno Don blipping his A/FX behind the line, etc etc...it was all pretty dang special.

In the meantime, as Larry said, I only have one question "which lane do you want?"

Re: Do I Sound Old School?
 

Let them have their own category. Edison can sponsor them. They only run each other.

Re: Do I Sound Old School?
 

Based on my experience during my days at Boeing during the Lithium battery issue, the grounding of the 787 fleet and what I learned for the incidents, I made recommendations to NHRA in 2015 to require an enclosed metal container for those that want to use a Lithium battery. Prior to the delivery of the 787 airplanes to the airline customers, we even had to develop new fire fighting protocols for the operators and airports worldwide on how to handle a Lithium battery fire, the equipment required and extinguishing media.

Re: Do I Sound Old School?
 

John: Your FB acct has been hacked

Re: Do I Sound Old School?
 

Thanks. Yes I know. Why on earth anyone would want to be me, I don't know, but...