May 19th: A Night of Drag!

It's always pretty awesome when Luke comes to take part in things that I'm really passionate about, like theatre shows.  It's also really awesome when I'm able to take part in the things that he's really passionate about.  Like a night full of drag ... racing!

As I've mentioned before, Luke really loves cars.  I think they're neat and cute sometimes, particularly when they're jellybean shaped. Rarely do I think too much about what's beneath that casing.  And everything underneath that casing is all the stuff the Luke loves most about cars.  I learned a bunch about it at the Autoshow, but it was at the Street Legal Drag Race that I began to understand the reasoning for all of it.

Did you know there's a lot involved in getting a vehicle from a stationary position to up to over 140 mph in a quarter mile?  Yup - LOTS!  Weight of the vehicle, traction of the tires, aerodynamics, some proper shifting, maybe a turbo charger here or there, a whole lot of guts, and sometimes stretching the limits of what is "street legal".  Not being a car person at all, I have to say that I was really fascinated to see these cars in action.  There was a Mazda RX7 that did not exactly fit into the "street legal" category, but it was amazing to see it do the quarter mile in less than 9 seconds.  There was also a 70 year old man on his motorcycle (I totally forget the make and model) doing runs in 9.3 seconds.  If that's not awesome then I don't know what is.  But really what's more awesome then seeing a friend of yours go down the track on his bike in only 10.35 seconds!  Maybe going back to the tracks to watch him crush that record?  Hmmm ... perhaps we'll have to try that out.

On top of the racing it was really cool to see some pretty awesome cars.  Nissan GTR, an old vintage Ford (which did the quarter mile in just over 13 seconds as I recall), some epically painted old trucks, and classy Edsel (not racing, which I suppose is understandable since the thing is a beast) and lots and lots of muscle cars!

Who knew that vehicles and the stuff could be so awesome!  I'm really looking forward to our next trip to the track.  I think I'm ready for my drag racing 102 lesson!