Drag Week 2018 is underway.

[chilly460]

Sheesh, rooms are already sold out!!!  Quick look around there are cheap options near the tracks so shouldn't be too big a deal to get rooms.  Think I'll start another thread for 2019 prep...at the pace I get projects done I'll have to start now to be ready

[thatdarncat]

One of the cool things about Drag Week is it draws many international participants and their cars. There was a group from the country of Estonia this year with a 1972 Ford Taunus. Pretty neat looking little car with twin turbo'd small block Ford power. They ran solid, fairly consistent, 8's all week, finishing in 5th place in the Unlimited class with a 8.747 @ 161 average. Fantastic results for their first time on Drag Week. Here's some pictures from their Facebook page and the internet.

[chilly460]

I've been watching a bunch of videos on Youtube from the last couple years, agree there are a lot of interesting combos, not a sea of early Camaros and Fox bodies as you see at the track normally.  Scary how many 7-8sec combos are running. 

Interesting little car, it's like a Torino met an early Mustang, met a 70s Capri....

[Heo]

I had two of those T-Anus when i was young.....with 1600 pinto
Engines fun to drive for what it was, But realy bad quality and with
165 13 tires and a light rear a real pain in the snow
I wounder how one ended up in Estonia i dont think there was any
sold new there under the Comunist era

[cjshaker]

That was a really neat car, and laid out really well. I was shocked to see it was Ford powered, which seems to be more and more of a rarity with all the LS crap out there. For them to hang with the Unlimited cars, with a small block, was really an amazing feat!

[chilly460]

The infusion of LS in fairmonts/mustangs/any Fox body makes me want to puke. 

[thatdarncat]

The Gebhart brothers keep track of a lot of Drag Week stats each year, putting out a list of each participant's overall quickest runs and averages in the event's history. They also keep track of the number of entries & finishers, here are the entry & finishing numbers by the years and a graph another Dragweekers Facebook member put together. Although the percentage of finishers has stayed somewhat steady, it's important to note how much quicker the cars have tended to get over the years. Also to note for this year is that there were a few participants who had to drop out due to the hurricane.



 

[cjshaker]

Although the percentage of finishers has stayed somewhat steady, it's important to note how much quicker the cars have tended to get over the years.

This^^
If you go back and look at winning times through the years, it really is amazing how much faster they've become. Most of the early cars wouldn't even be competitive today. I know I'll never be in contention for a trophy, but it's still fun to do. And it makes Scott and Jacks Cougar even more impressive when you consider that, besides the sheetmetal intake and fiberglass hood, there is nothing fancy about his car; stock body, leaf springs and 2 carburetors, and he's less than 2 tenths from the 8's! But it kind of sucks when everybody tends to gloss over 10 second street cars, when that used to be unheard of.

[jayb]

Right, I won in Scott's class in 2005, with less restrictive rules, and averaged 10.69 over the week.  I won in Modified NA with my Galaxie in 2009 averaging 9.52 (IIRC).  BB/NA is now a 9 flat class, and you'd better be running 8.50s in Modified NA if the fast cars show up for the event...