I took 20 of my students, mostly adults, to the 20th annual NHRA Career Fair at the Pomona Fairplex Dragstrip today. I've been taking my students there since 1994. It's mostly about career opportunities in motorsports and staying in school, and I've never had a student tell me it was boring.

This year it started out slow until they started the exibition runs at about 12:30. This included a couple of Pro Mod alcohol cars, but the highlight was definitely the Nitro Bikes...199 cubic inch, 1100 pound (with rider), 1000 horsepower Harleys running on 99% nitromethane. Can you say "wheelie all the way down the 1/4".

There were 5 bikes doing the runs for 3500 mostly high school students, and they made 2 runs each (1 hour apart, since 2 of them lost a cylinder in the first run). All the riders were gray haired old guys, and the body english required to keep some of them in the lane was extreme.

Quickest run was 6.38, and fastest speed was 210mph with an ET of 6.40. Very Impressive!!!

 

damn that would be fun to ride one of those

 

there is a video of 'spiderman' doing something like a 5.38 ... 238mph 1/4 ..... fastest recorded trap time. top fuel bike.

sounds like a great field trip

tim

http://www.reelvue.com/videos/special/574.wmv

 

900 pound bikes? why? chromemoly tubing and aluminum can't weigh THAT much...? I mean I've I've seen them, but it kinda seems like CRASHCAR ... a contrived anachronism designed to limit technology...

 

Hey, these are 190 cubic inch V twins. The original '55 Chevy Small Block V8 was only 265 c.i., and that's with 8 cyls. These engines are massive. 1000HP.

Plus these things are at least 10 feet long, not including the wheelie bar.

 

it ain't a harley, it can't be ridden street, it goes fast, ummmmm, where's the real world application? just spectacle, or sport? then why is PROSTOCK almost as fast with much less than the displacement on gasoline?

 

because the increase in wind resistance is exponential.

tim

 

And this was being run in front of 3500 high school students on an unseasoned track. Qualifying started the next day, Thursday. Times usually improve as more rubber is laid down on the track. They may not have even been going flat out although it sure looked like it, but it sure as hell was exciting to watch.