Top Fuel Dragster evolution. Morphing Top Fuel and F1 (9 Viewers)

[Chili]

That's true too but I doubt the timing retard would allow it. Besides, 350 is just an arbitrary number - if it were achieved once the hoopla dies down everyone would be talking 360. 340 was the holy grail for years and now that the barrier has been broken it's ho-hum and everyone is go for 350. Just like diarrhea, there's no end to that crap.

Look at the 4 pro classes - Top Alcohol too - other than the TF speed increase directly attributed to the winglet delete none of the speeds or ETs have improved over the last several years. I actually believe the nitro ETs in both classes have slowed on average. Hight ran 3.79/339.87 (2 separate passes) 9 years ago, AFTER NHRA banned the laid-backs. Millican ran 3.62 8 years ago, Brittany a year later. That's it; 2 cars, other than Langdon's 3.62 in testing.

Everything has its limits and perhaps drag racing has reached it. Not that it matters much. There's a lot more ways to re-imagine and improve the sport than running absolute numbers.

Drag racing has not reached it yet but it has for Funny Car and Dragsters. For the last few years many are trying to see how quick and fast they can go in a door car. Scott Palmer has been trying for years to be the first door car into the 4 second zone. Even after his accident in Studzilla, he is still chasing it with a different car. Jimmy Taylor has went 5.11 @262. Todd Moyer has ran as quick as 5.14. They were both Turbo cars it not sure what size turbos they were using or if they had another power adder as well.

 

[ironpony]

I don't think Top Fuel has reached its true limit yet, I think the rules have slowed us from finding out where that limit really is.

To me, the ultimate limit isn't the rulebook. It's physics... and how much money you're willing to spend chasing it.

Everything else—current rules, track conditions, and tire technology—is part of the equation, but they're also constraints. Looking back, I think if the NHRA hadn't stepped in with rule changes, 350 mph would have been reached a long time ago.

That said, I give the NHRA a lot of credit. They've done an incredible job of keeping the sport as safe as possible while trying to maintain a level playing field. That's important, and I understand why those decisions were made.

But I'll admit it... I'd love to see what a completely unrestricted Top Fuel dragster could do if the only limits were physics, engineering, and budget. How fast could it really go? What would it look like? That's the thought experiment that started this thread before we all came back to reality. There's nothing wrong with a little bench racing and imagining what might be possible.


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NHRA did not step in, Goodyear did.