Showing posts with label drag. Show all posts
Showing posts with label drag. Show all posts

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Drag Racing


There are several subtypes for this illegal behavior involving planned events. One of them, and by far one of the most popular, is drag racing. In this two or more cars can compete, and it is similar to the red-light green-light spontaneous scenario. Except in the planned event it will usually be three honks of a horn, whereupon the third the participants take off down a designated length of road. The first one to reach the finish line, usually two cars parked across from each other, is declared the winner, unless the contest is 2 out of 3. During this the vehicles will often be redlined, however shifting while redlined is very risky, and poses the severe risk of totally ruining the car’s transmission and damaging the engine. Therefore the driver must be very skilled at shifting before redlining, managing the acceleration to prevent spin, and finally maneuvering next to another vehicle with no barrier in between. The results of these races can be tragic, as both cars could be going at more that 100 miles per hour, and another car, unaware of the event, pulls out on its normal route. What then occurs is a spectacular accident in which many men women and children have so far lost their lives. This is why many races occur between the hours of 2 and 5 AM.
Another type of racing is the long-haul race. Different from the drag race there is usually no set length limit. What happens is that a group of cars who plan to participate will crowd around on a road travelling at half the posted speed limit, then a car horn will blare out three times, upon the third the cars take off, and race each other until one of them is much further ahead than the others. This one is then the winner. However should there be no clear victor from the race, another race will usually occur again, until someone wins, or until upon agreement within the group a winner is agreed upon. The rewards from this type of racing are usually non-monetary, however sometimes bets will be placed amongst the group, thereby creating a pot for the winner.