Yep. And looking in the mirror later on and seeing - literally - tiny pieces of rubber stuck to your face that were floating through the air. The kick to the chest from the shockwave is just amazing too. Good times. I haven't been in many years but apparently the top fuels are rocking around 10,000 horsepower.
I'd been around Top Fuel and Funny Cars a fair amount back in the mid to late 70's. Actually standing alongside on startup and leaving the starting line so I knew what to expect when I took my wife to Las Vegas in April 2017. I KNEW the engines were making a lot more power and expected a big increase in the noise and pressure when 2 cars left the line at the same time and I tried to prepare my wife for it. But, it was SOOOO much more than the last time I'd seen them run probably 40 years prior that I was surprised at how it rattled my chest. We were front row at about the 60' line! But my wife I think may have experienced just a tad bit more than the excitement of TF racing judging from how we spent our evening afterwards. ;-] Unfortunately, after many years of not being able to attend NHRA events either due to kids, $, no tracks near enough; and now having the time and wherewithal to attend some events, NHRA pulled another dipstick move and rulebooked Dodge out of Pro Stock which is the class I've favored my entire life, which hastened Allen Johnson's retirement, so I had no brand and nobody to root for. Oh, I love John Force, win or lose. Fast Jack Beckman was always a favorite of mine, but after hanging around with for an hour or so while he and his crew packed up to go home I found him to be my kind of guy. We think alike, make the same jokes, like a lot of the same things. He, my wife, and I had a good time talking and teasing as he was packing up his grungy chute which was largely held together with duct tape which I harassed him to no end about. Another fan that we had met when visiting with Erica Enders earlier in the day showed up snd we just had a blast. But I don't even watch on TV anymore. I don't care to see an all Chevy class race, there's no excitement in that whatsoever. Particularly since I've never been a GM fan. And TF & FC are loud & fast but I like watching cars race that are more based on reality than the necessity of tens of millions dollar budgets, fleets of semis, and race "teams" employing hundreds of people. So NHRA has seen the last of me, my $, and my TV time unless I happen across a John Force interview. Too bad, (my home track was Great Bend, Kansas; (home of the very 1st Nationals event in 1955) broke a streak of 53 years as a fan.
It's much more amazing to me to feel the sound than to hear the sound. I always find myself wondering if the heart changes beats or something. It's just so incredible.
Until you see it and experience it person you have No idea what it is like. For me... its music to my ears been involved in Drag Racing since the early 70's and I Love it.
I get so much joy seeing folks experience this for the first time, but at the same time, have so much sadness for them that they don't get to experience the dry-hops from back in the day.
Im 56 and experienced my first Top Fuel a year ago. I had never seen or felt anything like it. I spent 24 years in the military with bombs, missiles and guns going off near me, so not much impresses me. Well, THAT was impressed me.
Bwaaahaha, nothing can prepare you for the first time. The blast pressure when it hits your body, the sound, the speed. It's amazing. I love watching these virgin clips.
I live six miles from an NHRA drag strip. You can easily hear those top fuel dragsters at my house. It's the enjoyment of summer hearing those cars. I once drove by the drag strip on my way home from work just as the top fuelers took off. It scared the holy shit out of me. I was driving by about 60 mph with the windows up and the radio playing. Damn, they are loud, but I love it!
Everyone needs to experience this at least once in their lives. It is mind boggling. I've seen nitro virgins actually pee in their pants the first time one of these machines launches. Just too bad they don't blip the throttle in the pits (with the exception of the CatSpot car) when they are seating the clutch anymore.
Christopher: I lucked out and got my son in law to his first Southern Nationals and they were still blipping back then. After the first pit warmup he asked if he could run over to the next ones to fire (I walk slow, bad hip). I think he ended up watch almost all of them each round except where two fired at the same time. One other thing: On the way to the track I was telling him about the engine rebuilds, "less than an hour start to finish", and I think he thought I was FOS by the look on his face. He watched them rebuild Cruz P's car, and simply could not believe the symphony of motion required to pull it off. One of the best "nitro virgin" memories I have, and I have taken several for their initiation.
I went to the drags with my high school auto shop class years ago, our teacher wouldn’t even let us on the bus without ear protection of some kind. That feeling in your chest is like nothing else, short of a bomb going off.
My uncle went to an NHRA race once he told me about it and it was like something he never experienced before sadly he is no longer with us but he's the one that got me into NHRA and the love for speed I hope someday I will get to go watch an NHRA race it's on my bucket list.
My girlfriend is going to get her nitro cherry popped this April. I'm taking her to the NHRA 4 Wide Nationals in Charlotte. Not 20,000 HP per race but 40,000 HP. Ain't I a prince?
@@Man0fMeans Why call him or her out? You know for certain they meant top fuel. Hey, I know, maybe you could post again and call him or her out for the "e" at the end of breath!!
Ahhhhh. She was primed with adrenaline, building anticipation to the brink of her nervous system. Her body couldn't contain itself and forced her to bob, shake and move uncontrollably. And then.... with her stimulation peeking... BAMMMMMM! The climax ripped through her entire being, during the most intense climax she'd ever experience in life. Ever. She was changed forever. Bless you, nitro virgin.
There is nothing on earth that compares with the live experience of 22,000 horsepower literally exploding off the line and running for 3.5 seconds. Something you don’t soon forget!!
My wife's first time was great we where sitting on the starting line and she was fine with the burn out and staging but when the lights turned green she came up off her seat looked at me and said I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS SHIT.. THATS WHEN I handed her the ear plugs. After that she was fine. And became a very big Drag Racing fan.. we both love lt.
There is NOTHING like a Top Fuel or Funny Car run. I've shot for racing publications from the starting line: the only earthly thing I can imagine comparing it to is a full-on artillery barrage: 85mm, 105mm, 155mm, and 8-inch guns all firing once for 3.6 seconds.
Something that is interesting, for comparative speed purposes, is to see a class with "high performance" street cars, Camaros, Mustangs, Dodges, etc run a round of racing just before some top fuelers take their turn. It will calibrate a "newby's" thought processes as to what we conventionally consider to be fast.... "the Mustang in the left lane turned a 12.5 ET at 120 mph... and then there's a fueler that comes up and runs a 330 mph lap at 3.75 seconds. The "newbys' thought they knew what "fast" was, until they see what "really fast" IS.
It's funny when you're at the races and people hear the burnout and you tell them how loud the cars are and then they hear the burnout and they're like oh that's not too bad but when that light turns green and those tires are sticky man it's all over
First timers usually don't have a team of choice or driver. They don't even know who won after the race. They are just amazed forgetting the fact that there is a driver in that car concentrating so hard to keep the car straight in their lane when there perception of the track becomes almost non existent from acceleration and G forces. These drivers of top fuel are the true astronauts, hands down.
Watch your first timers afterwards tho". Make sure they take it in and no signs of distress, and just laugh it off. There was a lady who had severe problems at the start line watching for the first time. Unknown medical condition arose from the visceral excitement of two fuelers booming past, almost took her life. Shock and heart related. She collapsed in the stands beside her kids. 1997 at the Seattle race.
I asked my buddy son one day when we was at the drag strip how they make the top fuels go backwards after the burnout he happened to tell me they had killer elves in the long part of the top fuel dragster after the burnout they push the car backwards to the staging line. Then he said after that they get ready to apply the brakes at the end you said the elves need new shoes after every run
I mean hopefully, to see the 5 seconds of the video you actdually want to see, in the future it's trending to cut these videos much shorter. Still good stuff.
me and my dad does to the US nats in INDY every year there's nothing like these top fuel racing. My brother in law went to one couple years ago and they start up in the pits and hit the gas, he jumped up and said what was that i said that is top fuel lmao that fun has hell i love the noise the smell. the video was awesome though
Why do we still hate each other as humans. We can achieve so much if we bond together. I want to go to one of these events. Watching RU-vid videos of this doesn’t compare to being there after reading comments.
I was part of a top fuel Harley team. Put my gal in team colours and let her stand right up at the starting line with us. She said she would never do that again. Looked like she had cried her eyes out. Lmao
There is NO normally aspirated American production engine with enough horsepower to drive the blower on a top fuel Hemi engine. Wrap your head around that for a moment.
in the time it takes a mclaren f1 to go from 0-60 there doing about 320 mph almost half the speed of sound in under 1000 ft !! JESUS!!! and you know somebody is thinkin they could make there honda civic go a fast as this .
Paul Thomson In order for that honda to go that fast . It would need all of the speed decals they could find. Because we all know that decals = horsepower.
