| I think this country in general has a fascination with HP over other performance automotive qualities (such as brakes, suspension, tires, etc.). Almost every time a stranger asks about my car, they are always like: "what have you done to the engine, man?" I know they are fellow enthusiasts and just looking for an ice-breaker, but damn, I hear sooo many more questions about the engine (which I haven't even done much with, just intake/chip/exhaust) and nobody wants to talk about the big honkin Stoptech calipers or how low the car sits or the comp-r rubber :-) Some of it could be a carry-over from the muscle car era, I dunno. You go to Europe and they are much more interested in high-speed touring and road course performance (which means a emphasis on handling, brakes, weight, etc.). Drag racing, like Nascar, is simple. Your average American can watch a race and know what's goin on. You sit them down in front of a F1 or Speed World Challenge race and it might not make near as much sense to them since it's more complicated. Personally, I MUCH prefer a nice track day over a drag race. For ~$200 a day you can get about 2 hours of seat time and getting to experience a wider variety of performance maneuvers. That comes out to about $2.00 per minute or less for HPDE track time. To get five 12-second runs for a $20 fee, you are paying $20 per minute!!! I would rather drive my car for two hours on a challenging course than just put the pedal down in a boring straight line. I guess it does just boil down to bragging rights (i.e. my car is faster than yours, lol) There IS some skill in drag racing, and I respect those who do it, but its sooo much less sophisticated that some nice road course action. :o With all that said, I would much rather see it on the 1/4 mi. strip than the streets! (maybe this boom has something to do with Fast and Furious?)
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16:29:36 05/29/04
