History of Drag Racing
PAST: in the 1930s cars began to develop as motor car drivers became obsessed with speed. Engines got better and drivers got better. Drag racing is a straight dash in a dragster for 1/4 mile. The form grew from illegal racing on rural in the post war 1940s- early 1950s. Teenagers wanted to show if there mechanical skills by souping up their vehicles to drag race. Many hot rods could hit over 100mph on the 1/4 mile track. In the 1950s promoters built legal drag racing tracks that tennagers brought their hot rods to and raced them every weekend. If they didn't win then they would work on their hot rod and come back the next week
PRESENT: drag racing has changed a lot from the past to the present. With the creation of better engines and faster cars, racers are able to reach much higher speeds than originally. racers still use hot rods but other cars like Lamborghinis, ferraris, and mclarens have joined the racing seen. As well as the top fuel dragster which is an iconic model and is what most people think of when thinking of dragster. While there is still controversy about of drag racing is a sport or not everyone can agree its very dangerous and mostly done by juveniles. More than 520 people have died from drag racing in the past 25 years, which shows it's a very dangerous thing to do.
FUTURE: no one can be sure what drag racing will be like in the future. It's no doubt companies will come out with better, faster cars to accommodate racers' needs. And hopefully drag racing will become much safer due to new safety technology. And as far as the way way way future is concerned, if companies ever do come out with flying cars, maybe we can have flying car drag races which would be pretty awesome, but probably even more dangerous. Whatever drag racing is like in the future I hope it will at least be safer than it is today.
How will weight affect the dragster?
Weight will affect the dragster by making it heavier and making the dragster accelerate slower. However if the dragster is racing in a downhill slope then weight will be better because it will pull the dragster down the hill faste than if there was no weight.but in this case I'm racing on the ground so I don't need a lot of weight. I will still add some weight to pull my car along and not have friction or wind completely slow it down.
How will Aerodynamics affect the dragster
If my dragster is just a block of wood with wheels and some weight, I'm going to fail miserably. So I need to have aerodynamics to make it good fast. I will make the dragster be thin and have curves so the wind will roll off the curves instead of hitting the dragster strait on and slowing it down.
How will friction affect the dragster?
We are racing on smooth ground so there shouldn't be as much friction as there would be on a carpet or grass.we are using a specific set of wheels we are given, so there isn't really much I can tweak on them. But there won't be much friction so that should be ok.
Building my dragster:
First I start with 5 concept designs and choose one
I have chosen the bottom one, so I make a little bit better sketch of what I want.
Then I get my box and start to draw the final design.
I draw my car on top of the sketch of the block of wood and add measurements and axle holes (this is the actual size of the car ).
This is the block of wood I will be using to build with.
I then cut my drawing out and tape it on to the wood so I can trace it.
Then I trace it with a pen and cut my axle holes.
Here is a better look at my axel holes.
Then Coach Spodick cuts it. Here is what it looks like when it's done.
Time to sand.
I finished sanding and added to two coats of white paint, after which it looks like this.
I have chosen to paint my car blue so I paint my first coat of blue paint and it looks like this
Then I add a second coat of blue paint and it looks like this
Then I sand a little more and paint my final coat of blue paint and it looks like this.
Next I paint on some details. Here is a view from all angles, top, side, other side, and bottom
Here are the parts I will be using to make my wheels.
Coach Spodick cuts the axles and I add in the straw to my axel holes to make the car faster. Here is a look at the straw in the axel holes.
Then I add in the axels, bushings, and wheels. And my car is almost done!
Then I add in the CO2 cartridge
Then coach Spodick bends the hooks so the fishing wire will go on when we race. Then I put them in, 150mm apart.
Then the car is done!
Time to race!
Conclusion:
So I was stupid and didn't realize you had to save the video of the dragster race to your camera roll right as you took it. So sadly I don't have the video. But I do remember that my meters per second was 99.