Street Racing
The intricacies that are involved in turning a regular car into a “Street Racer” are many; and racers pour their souls into these magnificent machines. After seeing “the Fast and the Furious” many people have or wanted to become involved in street racing. They do not realize that this is a sport that takes knowledge, hard work, and nerve. Many of these racers have spent their lives under a car, learning the trade and improving upon it. As I have learned, this is not just a hobby; it is a way of life.
This lifestyle does carry a price, racers face persecution from police and the general public. They have their cars impounded and defaced by those who reject racing. Having a racer is not illegal, but some of the things people do with them are. This is what the general public does not understand. The IRA* is a legal racing circuit that embraces Street Racers. It gives the much-needed outlet to build magnificent cars and race them legally.
Police are not the only worry on a racers mind. Death, fraud, and theft are the dark side of this moon. Some racers lack legitimate funds for equipment, and they resort to theft and fraud. This is where the misconceptions of the general public resonate. Yes there is crime; and laws are broken, but in everything there is a good and bad. So I warn anyone who pursues this life, enjoy the good, and be ready for the bad.
What drives these racers to this lifestyle? They have an addiction to speed. The six-cylinder engine fuels this “need for speed.” Some may think that their two hundred thousand dollar car is fast, with these engine modifications will have an Accord blowing the doors off a Ferrari. The six-cylinder engine has six pistons pumping in six cylinders; hence, the name.
Fuel is injected and burned; causing gas compression (picture a shaken soda bottle). This compression forces the pistons up and down that move your car. With compression in the cylinder, the Turbo comes into play. If two balloons were filled with air, one half and the other full, which would go faster? This is the job of the Turbo. Burning requires air, and when you introduce more air a fire is larger and hotter. It forces compressed air into the engine, letting it burn more air each time the pistons pump increasing boost**.
There is a drawback to more air, more heat in the engine. Heat in the engine makes the air d...
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...d slows, this is how the spoiler helps. To add more push to the back of the car, the angle and height of the spoiler is increased. This is why some normal cars have little spoiler for show and racers use them for performance.
There is a problem to adding all of these parts to a car, weight. As I have said the racers have adapted to this problem. They have lightened their cars by using carbon-fiber** parts.4 They are strong and half as light at metal, so racers can add these parts and not get dragged down…literally.
A warning to those who read this, do not get dragged down into the dark side of racing. Racing on streets is dangerous. If you enhance a car like this, it should be raced only on a legal strip. A ten-second rush is not worth killing yourself or others. Work hard and be fair. If you do this you will always win. I hope to have helped any curious person who wanted to know how people make these racers. I wanted to dispel the stereotypes of racers and their lifestyle. Yes, some of this lifestyle is dark; but most racers are kids who love cars. They whole-heartedly adopt the dogma that, “Nothing else matters, and for those ten seconds or less… they’re free.” 5
Drag: Here's where aerodynamics come into play. As an object moves through the air, it is met with air resistance as speeds increase. This air resistance pushes against your CO2 car and prevents it from going as fast as it could in a vacuum. You can't completely ever reduce drag, but you can help reduce it by building a more aerodynamic car, but those are more difficult to create.
NASCAR introduced roof flaps in 1994. The purpose of the roof flap is to help keep the car down, when it spins out. Due to high speeds after a car spun out backwards the car was able to catch air underneath it, managing the car to fly through the air and flip over. Another piece on modern cars today is having a spoiler on the rear end. The spoiler helps keeps the air push down on the car for maximum down force. This helps the tires to stay on the ground for more traction to the track. But this does take out some of the speed the cars do possess.
The Fast and the furious: Tokyo Drift shows how there are somethings that people just cannot stay away from. After totalling his car in an illegal street race, Shaun Boswell is forced to live with his father in Tokyo, Japan, to avoid jury or even jail back in America. While in school he meets an automotive enthusiast named Twinkie. Twinkie introduces him to the car culture in Japan. Though not allowed to be on roads, he decides to get in a drift battle with D.K, the “Drift King”, who’s family is the backbone of Yakuza, and loses. In the process he also destroys the car given to him by one of them Yakuza members because of his lack of knowledge in drifting, the only type of racing that requires car size awareness and crazy circuits. To repay
Looking up, you see that it is almost your turn. After getting off the hood of the car, you open the door, and sit inside the vehicle. As you firmly grasp the wooden steering wheel, the scent of unleaded gasoline fills the air, the rigid feel of the leather racing seat brushes skin, and the warm touch of chrome on the shifter radiates through the car. Sliding the key into the ignition, you turn it and hear the low grumble of the HiPo 302 cubic inch engine. You shift the car into first gear and begin to creep forward to the drag strip. You pull up to the starting line and wait. Looking over to the right and seeing your opponent eagerly awaiting the race in his red 1968 Camaro brings excitement. Overhead on the loudspeakers an announcer calls, “Up next, is a 1968 Camaro going against a 1965 Mustang Fastback. The Camaro is fitted with a 327 cubic inch engine and puts out about 210 horses while the Mustang has a 302 cubic inch high powered engine which cranks out 230 horsepower. This, ladies and gentlemen, will be a race of the ponies.” A shift into first gear sends a shiver of anticipation. You look at the light tree ahead and wait for it to turn green. It starts to count down. The first set of lights goes up. You begin to rev the engine to 2000 RPM’s. The second set of yellow lights goes up. The engine revs up even more. The car shakes slightly and the engine growls even louder. The third set of yellow lights goes up. The engine revs to 5000 RPM’s. The green lights go up. A quick dump of the clutch and the engine roars like a lion as it sprints down the track. The front end of the car lifts up and slams back down as the speed rapidly increases. The car screams as you shift into second gear. Looking over to the right, you glimpse the...
Pressure is a main factor in turbo chargers. Pressure is the force exerted on a surface divided by the area of the surface (force per unit area). Decreasing the volume increases the pressure. The average speed of the molecules do not change. If we increase the number of particles in a same volume, we expect the pressure to increase because there would be more frequent collisions between the particles and the walls of the space. Temperature is also very important. If the temperature of the gas increases, the speeds of the particles also increase. Pressure and volume are inversely proportional, (by Boyle’s Law) as one increases, the other must decrease. Gases want to flow from a high pressure area to a low pressure area. The greater the difference, the faster they flow. I...
Due to the growing prevalence of stock car racing, muscle cars came into power during the 1960s, which has become known as the Golden Age of Muscle. Lasting from 1960 to 1972, muscle cars enjoyed over a decade of power, and, regrettably, a four decade hibernation. In the past six years, muscle cars have reemerged in the form of the Charger, Challenger, Mustang, and Camaro. The new cars’ styling pays tribute to their Golden Age predecessors. This is the new muscle car age, with competition and corporate pride higher than ever.
The second fastest class, Funny Cars, usually don't look anything like the production vehicles on which they are based. The bodies of these cars may be constructed out of composite carbon fiber. This is a lightweight semi durable material. The reason why these cars may be made of this is because they aren't as powerful as the Top Fuelers. This class also may be supercharged, fuel-injected, or nitro methane burning. The limitation of horsepower, however, is greater. They must be under 6,000 to qualify in this class. With less horses behind the wheel and less aerodynamic designs most of these cars will travel the quarter-mile in less than five seconds at speeds more than 320 mph.
The racecar was not the most creative or what some would call beautifully designed. But the owner and his father worked for weeks on that little wooden block to turn it into something the ten-year-old boy could be proud to race. A previous race showed what needed to be done for a car to make it in the top five. After careful designing, sanding, painting, and graphite the car was finished.
This is how the modern muscle cars, such as the Chevy Camaro, came into existence. Without muscle cars much of the speed and safety technology we know today would either be nonexistent or very expensive. Those are the differences between all the different types of cars, from a convertible to a muscle car. Additionally this is a brief account of historical events and societal changes that have influenced the production of muscle cars. These are the ways that muscle car production has helped create and yet change the racing industry by making it safer and more interesting.
The aerodynamic efficiency is the single most important element in designing a competitive car for professional racing or getting the car model on the front of a Car and Driver or Motortrend. Aerodynamics is the study of the motion of gases on objects and the forces created by this motion. The Bernoulli effect is one of the most important behind car design. The Bernoulli Effect states that the pressure of a fluid, in gaseous or liquid state, varies inversely with speed or velocity and a slower moving fluid will exert more pressure on and object than the same fluid moving slower (Yager). The goal of car designers is to make the air passing under a car move faster than the air passing over the car. This causes the air passing over the car to create more downforce than the air passing under the car creates upforce creating a force additional to the car’s weight pushing the car to the road. Large amounts of downforce are needed to keep light cars grounded at high speed and keep to cars from sliding around turns at high speeds.
Should drag racing be the blame for illegal street racing? Though police believe drag racing encourages illegal street racing, drag racing provides a safe legal way to race and actually discourages street racing. Drag racing doesn’t encourage illegal street racing because the whole purpose and idea of a drag strip is to keep people off the streets, even veteran drag racers say that drag racing in no way encourages illegal street racing, and video games are a bigger influence on people then drag racing. There are many reasons why drag racing doesn’t encourage illegal street racing and many people from scientist to 18 year drag racing veteran help support my argument. Drag racing is nothing but a legal, safer way to enjoy the sport of racing that in no way encourages illegal street racing in any way.
There are many different kinds of vehicles on the road, but the ones that stand out the most are muscle cars and sports cars. Their unique design and body styles will catch people’s attention wherever they go. The Ford Mustang, a high performing muscle car introduced in 1964, is the most notable muscle car on the streets. It is most known for its unique body design with a long hood and short, rear decks. Their high performing V8 engines make their exhausts have a really deep, loud growl. When you think of sports cars, the first that comes to mind is the Chevrolet Corvette. Its sleek body style paired with its ability to stick to the ground around corners, makes it a very notable sports car in America. The two most iconic versions of these
In this scene, the main character Speed Racer is participating in the Grand Prix. There is a lot building up to this race but as a separate scene the pacing and editing is admirable for the way it tells an internal story. On top of this, several themes and characters are revisited throughout this climactic race in order to add emphasis
There are many differences between Turbos and Blowers. The first is the power curve. Superchargers build boost as rpm increases in a linear fashion, because they are belt driven from the engine crankshaft. This means that the supercharger is always on and achieves its maximum potential at higher rpm's. The faster the engine is going, the faster the supercharger is turning. T...
Since most Asian Americans in the late 70s and 80s drove Japanese imports, they could not compete with the much more powerful Detroit muscle cars. This resulted in a street-racing scene consisting solely of modified imports. But a lack of aftermarket parts to make the various Toyotas Hondas and Nissans go faster meant that drivers often used nitrous oxide as the best way to compete. As the competition increased, so did the speed and danger. One Asian American who had a vision to race safely also wanted to race at the local drag strip. Unfortunately the track was only reserved for V8's, Mustangs, or Cameros.