Quote:
Originally posted by CobraEd
On the street, a quick blast from a stoplight up to 50, 60, 70 or so is pretty safe and can be done very often and in many places. And if you don't spin the tires, and back off at 50 -60, you're not even breaking the law.
On the other hand, sliding thru turns, doing four wheel drifts on the street has the following drawbacks.
1) Can loose control
2) Get hurt (or worse)
3) Against the law
4) Can damage (or wreck) the car
5) Not many places to do this on the street
6) Almost impossible to do against another car on the street
So, Accelleration and stoplight launches are far more popular and readily doable that "running thru the turns". Thus, the universal preoccupation with acceleration.
Ed
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Ed, you got that right. I, as a kid, would never even think of trying to go around a corner at the limit. I valued living, my body, too much.
1/4 mile times are an easy test that everybody (masses) can relate to, comparing performance potential (lbs/hp) between cars. What times a car runs at Watkin's Glen, Limerock, Nelson Ledges, Mid-Ohio would not be significant to the vast number of people who enjoy motorsports. Also, the driver has more of an impact on influencing times on a road course than I think with drag racing, which I believe is more dependent upon the car set-up. So comparing 1/4 mile times , to me, is a better test of the cars acceleration potential, that can be reproduced more easily.
I've been to run and gun twice, had a blast, while my car lasted that is. Autocross is a blast as well, with little fear of seriously damaging yourself or your car, as opposed to road racing. Doing 150 mph down a straight that is 8 car lanes wide is still scary.