Quote:
Originally Posted by SleepWarz
...However I'm not a big fan of the Quarter, its too short for todays vehicles.
In my opinion, the quarter mile is a bunch of crap now. Maybe it was good when you hit your top speed near the end on 4.11's back in the 70's but in todays day and age it sucks. Far far to short to see a true competition between cars. I mean why the hell don't we have full mile courses where you can actually put the HAMMER down...
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The fun of 1/4 mile is the driver skill it takes to get off the line and get through that first 1/8 mile; that's where all the skill is. Just holding down the gas pedal for top end is more about the car than anything else.
The reason why full mile courses are not a good idea is very few people actually have the training and skill to handle cars at the speeds you can hit in that distance. Not to mention the other side of that coin, slowing down from those speeds which takes skill too. When you brake hard from those speeds in a car that's already front-heavy, the weight shifts towards the front big-time and the back gets light; very light. You have to have training and experience in how that feels and how to control your braking so the back doesn't get loose on you. And if the back
does get loose, you have to know how to control a car that's trying to get "out of control". There's a lot more to "going fast" than just mashing the gas pedal to the floor.
The pros make it look easy to go around those big ovals at 200+ mph but it's NOT easy and takes a lot of skill and experience to not get yourself (or others) killed. And even in their league they run into problems from time to time.
1/4 mile is about all that's reasonably safe for the average driver; going beyond that the chances of a crash/injury/death go up so fast it's not worth the liability to any track to allow it.