Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Tanks and Compressed Air

Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by potato3732842 on Monday April 07, 2025 @01:31PM (#43613895)

Drag racing is just about the purest most scientific competition of vehicle tuning you're going to get. The driver doesn't really make or break it as long as they're at least decent.

On the other end of the spectrum you have racing types that are more of a competition among drivers with the vehicle not really making or breaking anything as long as it's typical for the class.

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by mperham on Monday April 07, 2025 @01:39PM (#43613969)

I get racing on a twisty track. They are legitimate tests of human skill and vehicle endurance engineering. Drag racing has none of that. There's little skill beyond reaction time and drag vehicles have almost no relation to normal vehicles.

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by SAI_Peregrinus on Monday April 07, 2025 @01:45PM (#43614021)

Think of drag racing like the CO2 cartridge race car competitions you see in lots of high-school science classes. It's an engineering challenge, not a skill-based race.

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by oslem on Monday April 07, 2025 @01:49PM (#43614048)

I disagree. Drag racing involves incredible honed vehicle endurance, just on a much shorter timescale. It’s an engineering problem with the goal of outputting as much power as possible within a short timespan (often only a few seconds) without detrimentally destroying the engine. As far as the drivers are concerned, the reaction time is obviously important, but they have to be extraordinarily consistent. At that, they have to drive the car at 5 g’s- not an easy task.

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by barnas2 on Monday April 07, 2025 @02:01PM (#43614168)

The engines still get destroyed. It's basically a complete rebuild between runs. Most of the spark plugs burn up, clutch disks get welded together, etc. The goal is basically to just not have the engine outright detonate so they can reuse the block.

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by oslem on Monday April 07, 2025 @03:00PM (#43614721)

You are absolutely correct. Perhaps I should’ve worded “detrimentally destroyed” as “catastrophic failure.” The rebuild process between runs is fascinating to watch. I’ve never seen an engine torn apart so quickly!

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by WalterBright on Tuesday April 08, 2025 @02:17AM (#43618842)

> I’ve never seen an engine torn apart so quickly!

The first time I took my 286 intake manifold off, it took 4 hours. The 4th time I took it off, it took 20 minutes. Once you know exactly what to do, it really cuts the time down.

I'm sure every member of the team knows exactly what to do and it's down to a dance.

For fun, look how fast they change the tires on a Formula 1 pit stop.

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by dizhn on Monday April 07, 2025 @02:07PM (#43614235)

You're thinking about this in only a professional way. There are a lot of amateur events where people race with their own cars that they have modified. It's really fun to see something like a vw rabbit beat a modern sports car etc. It's a fun event too but the tire burning shows do get old very quickly.

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by badlibrarian on Monday April 07, 2025 @01:49PM (#43614053)

Try it! Costs far less than you think and more than half the class sat wide eyed, refusing a second run.

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by mikestew on Monday April 07, 2025 @01:57PM (#43614126)

Drag racing has none of that.

What is it the kids say? "Tell me you know nothing about drag racing without saying you know nothing about drag racing"? Drag racing has all of that, squeezed into 1/4 of a mile. That's why top fuelers get an engine rebuild after every trip down the track.

It's like saying, "I get ultramarathons, but 400m foot races involved little skill or training." Look, if you don't get it, fine. Probably best to just leave it at that.

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by jcgrillo on Monday April 07, 2025 @01:48PM (#43614043)

Have you ever tried it?

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by mperham on Monday April 07, 2025 @02:11PM (#43614270)

I participated in motorcycle track days on race tracks for 15 years. I've dragged knee at 90pmh. _That_ takes skill and balls. Drag racing seems dumb by comparison.

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by mikestew on Monday April 07, 2025 @02:17PM (#43614333)

That's a long-winded way to say, "no, I've never tried it". If one has never tried a pursuit, I can understand how it might "seem dumb". What seems dumb to me, though, is doing track days for years on end, and never once trying to see how fast you could launch a bike down a drag strip, and then going on about how dumb drag racing is.

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by mperham on Monday April 07, 2025 @02:35PM (#43614512)

I've owned two Porsches, an Audi R8 V10, half dozen sport bikes. I've done laps at Laguna Seca. I've floored them all to see what they'll do. The V10 sounded amazing.

But I've never felt any interest in drag racing at all, it's a pointless waste of fuel. Press accelerator, press brake, done, little to no skill required. And in something like the R8, would require a $20,000 dealer visit after a weekend of runs.

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by potato3732842 on Monday April 07, 2025 @04:45PM (#43615760)

If you actually achieved a high level of proficiency you'd be able to respect what goes on at an equally high level in a different niche.

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by MarcelOlsz on Monday April 07, 2025 @01:36PM (#43613940)

Racing changed my life and you should definitely go to a meetup, drag race, or track event. The dream of the 80's is still alive in the car world. You'll meet the coolest people. Dummies get filtered and don't make it to the events/track. It's the best and easiest real life scene to get into if you're technical because car guys are absolute nerds.

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by jorvi on Monday April 07, 2025 @01:55PM (#43614101)

> because car guys are absolute nerds.

Are they? At least in Europe they are usually blue collar guys that pick a neighborhood at random to hold a car meet, terrorizing that neighborhood until deep into the night, including street races. And if they aren't accommodated they'll aggressively clash with the police.

They're easy to spot too, pumped up douches with tribal tattoos and gemstone earrings that behave like they're prone to pick a bar fight with you.

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by JKCalhoun on Monday April 07, 2025 @02:15PM (#43614318)

Or hoons as the Aussies call them. I think OP was talking about a different caliber of racer.

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by MarcelOlsz on Monday April 07, 2025 @02:31PM (#43614465)

I am, which is why I specifically said drag, meetups, and track events. The only group I detest are the ones that takeover roads/highways and race in densely populated zones. I like hooners, 99% stick to parking lots and make a bit of noise. You'll be very hard pressed to find "racers" who embrace endangering regular people.

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by MarcelOlsz on Monday April 07, 2025 @02:28PM (#43614445)

What do you expect when tracks are closing left and right? That energy has to go somewhere. But yes those guys are also nerds.

The meets I'm talking about are like this [0][1]. There's a lot of the tattoo gemstone guys in [1]'s timestamp. Is this what you mean? I'd love some examples.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bAq_qD9i2s

[1] https://youtu.be/q4lvEYLJaOY?t=340

>And if they aren't accommodated they'll aggressively clash with the police.

If you're a car guy you're basically begging to be hunted constantly. In my opinion this is all downstream of the death of folkracing.

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by potato3732842 on Monday April 07, 2025 @04:47PM (#43615774)

Europe doesn't have the same accessibility for motorsport so people doing stuff on the street is what you get. IDK, write your legislator.

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by dave4270 on Monday April 07, 2025 @02:04PM (#43614206)

As a race buddy of mine often says, one can teach a complete college semester on the math of drag racing. From the engineering of the vehicles to the tuning to the weather calculations. And then there is what we call "bracket racing". Staggered starts based on your own prediction of elapsed time that you cannot run faster than or you will "break out" and the other vehicle wins. A favorite t-shirt in the pits says, "Not everyone can do math at 150MPH".

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by stronglikedan on Monday April 07, 2025 @01:58PM (#43614141)

You could say the same about just about everything except breathing, eating, and drinking nothing but water.

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by JKCalhoun on Monday April 07, 2025 @02:14PM (#43614298)

I have been told that a lot consumer automobile advances began life on the race track.

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by Dylan16807 on Monday April 07, 2025 @01:47PM (#43614039)

Most hobbies are pointless. I need you to explain how you got to "self-destructive" though.

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by mperham on Monday April 07, 2025 @02:24PM (#43614401)

When I look at a drag stripe, I see a gray, dirty rectangle of asphalt that generates huge amounts of noise and air pollution. Beyond the environmental destruction, it's a hobby that quickly destroys vehicle parts, engines, tires, brakes, etc. All of that destruction, for what? 5 seconds of extreme acceleration? To go one hundredth of a second faster this time?

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by Dylan16807 on Tuesday April 08, 2025 @12:56AM (#43618454)

How do you feel about model rockets? If it's the same then oof okay, but if you feel very different then I think you're being too harsh on drag racing.

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by blahyawnblah on Monday April 07, 2025 @01:32PM (#43613900)

People like to go fast and they like the challenge. And newer race cars have a good bit of technology in them.

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by jimktrains2 on Monday April 07, 2025 @01:48PM (#43614044)

Literally everything is pointless, even existence, from someone's point of view.

You don't have to understand how something amuses someone to understand that it amuses them. You also don't have to belittle people to ask them why they are amused.

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by bigyabai on Monday April 07, 2025 @01:38PM (#43613963)

If you think drag racing seems pointless and self destructive, it is in your best interests to not explore the other popular variants of competitive motorsports today.

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Re:Drag Racers Are Ditching Superchargers for Scuba-Style Ta... by tomhow on Tuesday April 08, 2025 @01:32AM (#43618608)

It's fine to feel that way but it's not the kind of dismissive comment we want on HN; we're here to have curious conversations, thanks!

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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