drag racing
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The recently updated 2019 Dodge Charger muscle sedan has just spawned a high-horsepower National Hot Rod Association Funny Car. It makes its competition debut this weekend at the Dodge Mile-High NHRA Nationals Powered by Mopar, which runs July 20-22 at Bandimere Speedway near Denver, Colorado. It replaces Dodge's previous Funny Car based on the Charger R/T, which has been tearing down the strip since 2015. The new car has big shoes to fill. The Charger R/T-based car has 50 wins to date, including back-to-back wins by Don Schumacher Racing's Matt Hagan leading into this weekend's Dodge...
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The tides are changing: electric-car class coming to NHRA
Someday, the drag strip will fall silent as the first set of electric dragsters lines up. The NHRA stopped short of setting a specific date, but the body will one day welcome electric racers. Glen Cromwell, current president of the NHRA, confirmed the governing body includes electric drag racing in...
Sean Szymkowski -
Order books now open for 50th anniversary 2018 Ford Mustang Cobra Jet drag racer
The Chevrolet COPO Camaro will have some new competition at the dragstrip this year. Order books are now open for the 50th anniversary 2018 Ford Mustang Cobra Jet—a purpose-built Mustang drag racer. The new Mustang Cobra Jet celebrates Ford dealer and racer Bob Tasca's original model, and...
Sean Szymkowski -
Roadkill Nights returning to Woodward Avenue this August
The ever-popular Roadkill Nights event will once again descend upon Woodward Avenue in Pontiac, Michigan, this August. Dodge will sponsor the event for the fourth year running, the brand said on Wednesday, with plans to offer rides in both the Challenger and Charger Hellcat models, among several...
Sean Szymkowski -
Dodge-SRT rolls out complimentary drag racing school for Demon owners
It's one thing to own a 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon, but something entirely different to fundamentally understand how to unlock its potential at the dragstrip. Dodge and SRT want each Demon owner to tap their cars' potential, so much so that the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles brands announced on...
Sean Szymkowski -
This hero bought a Dodge Challenger SRT Demon and went straight to the dragstrip
Irwindale Raceway in California is home to a number of racing surfaces. One of the most popular is the eighth-mile dragstrip. On certain nights, anyone interested can bring their car or truck to the track and see how it performs on this straight line of asphalt. For what might be the first time...
Jeff Glucker -
The 2018 Dodge SRT Demon begins shipping to dealers in the U.S. and Canada today, and it is being offered with some accessories and options that we didn't know about previously. We reached out to Dodge do find out how many Demons have left the plant, and a spokeswoman told us that only a few dozen cars started shipping today, and the ramp-up is slow. She also wrote: "Shipping is dependent on options—late availability colors and level of up-fit necessary (for example, the matte black graphics package is hand-painted after the vehicle leaves the plant)." Every Demon comes with a...
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There's a new Nissan GT-R quarter-mile king
Modified versions of the Nissan GT-R are going faster and faster. Recently, the team from the West Chicago-based AMS Performance set a new low (that's a good thing here) when it ran its GT-R into the six-second range in the quarter mile. Now the competitive set from ETS has reclaimed the throne but...
Jeff Glucker -
Lamborghini Aventador SV drag races Tesla Model X and Model S, loses to one
This is gasoline versus electricity. This is V-12 wail versus motor hum. This is a Lamborghini Aventador SV facing down a pair of Teslas on a quarter-mile dragstrip. First up is a Model X and then comes a Model S. It's a battle of about $150,000 versus well over $500,000. Unfortunately the owner of...
Jeff Glucker -
This 1,700-hp Mitsubishi Evo is the quickest in the world
The Mitsubishi Evo is a pretty wild machine. It is basically an excellent powertrain wrapped around a mediocre interior. You buy it because you want to go fast, and that's why we love it. Tuners love it too because they can rework the 4G63 engine to make tremendous power. Extreme Tuners knows this...
Jeff Glucker -
This 1965 Honda S600 makes 1,200 hp and runs 7-second quarter miles
For two years back in the mid 1960s, Honda produced a fun little sports car that wore the name S600. You could get it as a coupe or a roadster, and power was provided by a 606-cc flat 4-cylinder engine. It produced a mighty 57 horsepower, and nobody at the time thought of it as a drag car. The...
Jeff Glucker -
This General Lee Dodge Viper makes 1,700 horsepower on pump gas
The dearly departed Dodge Viper makes 645 horsepower from its V-10 engine. That's so much more power than most people can handle. For others, like the Calvo Motorsports team, it's not even close to enough. Wearing a General Lee livery, the Calvo Motorsports Dodge Viper is designed to go very fast...
Jeff Glucker -
Staging a car at a drag strip is an art form. You line up so you have your car exactly where you want it to try and extract tenths of a second as you blast off down the strip. Some like staging deep while others run shallow. However, for some, staging is now moving beyond the art form and into the highly technical. Such is the case on this massively modified 1,700-horsepower Nissan GT-R. For an all-wheel-drive car like the GT-R, staging means working quickly to get your boost pressure built up before the yellow lights start their dance toward the green. Some vehicles employ a bit of tech...
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Ford Focus RS challenges Mustang Shelby GT350 at the dragstrip
Place your bets, ladies and gents. What will it be? The turbocharged, 4-cylinder, all-wheel-drive, Ford Focus RS pushing 350 horsepower, or the Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 with 526 hp from a good ol' fashioned V-8? That is the question ahead of watching the video above. After viewing the results are...
Sean Szymkowski -
Watch a Plymouth Belvedere lose its rear end at the dragstrip
Inch forward. The first staging light goes from inky blackness to a brilliant blot of bright yellow. It's telling you to keep moving forward just a little more. There's the second staging light, playing the same game as its partner. Trip and now you're ready to test the limits of your machine. It's...
Jeff Glucker -
How fast is the Dodge Demon on pump gas, in Eco mode?
We all know the lofty claims. The 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon is the fastest production car in the quarter mile with a time of 9.65 seconds and in the 0-60 mph sprint at just 2.3 seconds. However, those numbers require 100+ octane racing fuel and the optional Direct Connection engine...
Kirk Bell -
This twin-turbo Lamborghini Huracán makes 1,439 hp at the wheels and runs 8s
High horsepower figures and low quarter mile times are the order of the day of late. Some of that is owed to all of the Dodge Demon news, while other flashes of interest are being created by tuners all over the world. You can now add Gosha Turbo Tech to that list thanks to its twin-turbocharged...
Jeff Glucker -
The 2018 Dodge Demon's NHRA ban is hype
Everybody, including Dodge, needs to stop saying the Demon's banned from the dragstrip by the NHRA, because it's not. It can be banned for a day because it's too damn fast. Let's back up. Dodge built the hype around the 2018 Challenger SRT Demon to a boiling point, and with good reason. The car is...
Joel Feder -
Four thousand horsepower is quite a lot to manage even for the most serious drivers on the planet. And every time a drag racer climbs into the cockpit, he or she knows there's a risk at hand. The circumstances were no different with this Chevrolet C7 Corvette dragster, which encountered a nasty accident on the dragstrip. During runs at Tulsa Raceway Park, driver Daniel Pharris caught air while rocketing down the track. Not the good kind of air, either. CHECK OUT: Anatomy of a record-setting Top Fuel run As you watch the video you'll see that the twin-turbocharged Corvette lifts off the ground...
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No more talking: 2017 Dodge Challenger Hellcat vs. the 2017 Chevy Camaro ZL1
The new 2017 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 is just hitting the streets, and naturally people are stretching its legs. The obvious question on people's minds is how does the new Camaro ZL1 stack up against its Mopar competitor, the Dodge Challenger Hellcat? Our friend John Hennessey has just answered that...
Joel Feder -
Limited edition 2017 COPO Camaro ready to slay dragstrips
In 1969, Chevrolet's Central Office Performance Order program became the source of dealer-ordered, factory drag cars that would go on to post many victories at the dragstrip. On Monday, Chevrolet introduced the 2017 COPO Camaro show car in Nevada. The show car, which is chassis number 01, will be...
Kirk Bell -
Jay Leno crashes in the Hemi Under Glass
Since he was a kid, Jay Leno has appreciated the Hurst Hemi Under Glass Plymouth Barracuda. With a Hemi engine moved to the back under the rear glass, the car had a considerable rear weight bias that turned it into a prominent wheelstander. The car wowed the crowds at dragstrips more than it...
Kirk Bell -
Bentley Bentayga lines up with 911 Turbo at the drag strip
A Bentley Bentayga and Porsche 911 Turbo recently lined up at the drag strip. Considering the Porsche is one of the quickest sports cars in production and the Bentley is a big brute of an SUV, you don’t have to be a genius to predict the results. Nevertheless, it’s fun to watch the two...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Here’s the first NHRA Funny Car based on the 6th-gen Camaro
Chevrolet has unveiled its NHRA Funny Car based on the sixth-generation Camaro. The bright blue example was unveiled by 16-time NHRA champion John Force and daughters Brittany and Courtney. Both daughters are drag racers themselves, and some readers will recall Courtney helped introduce the 2016...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran