Brian Lohnes: How The Stone Age Man Became a Rocket Scientist
Since the very beginning of what we now know as the world of drag-and-drive competition, it has existed as a unique and wholly interesting subset of the sport of drag racing. More than that, it has evolved in ways that are singular in and unto itself.
That’s what we’re here to chat about today. Where this thing came from to where it is now and why. Of course we can find ways to trace this stuff back to any end we want but for our purposes here, let’s take the start of the drag-and-drive era as 2005.
When we look at Carl Scott’s car or Phil Cooper’s or Larry Larson’s in the context of the day they were a mix of sledgehammer simple and crafty racer advanced. None of the three were sporting a lick of the technology that is used across the board today but all of them were killer cars, fast 20 years ago and fast now. Scott’s changing of the intake manifold, center section, bolt in windows, and other stuff at each track was mind boggling then and perhaps even more so now, right? In recent times Brett LaSala’s Snot Rocket Mustang roared to a 3.99 in the eighth-mile, a place that none of those beastly early cars would ever dream of going. LaSala did it with technology and an engine platform that literally did not exist for racers in 2005. And this is the crux of our story.
Drag-and-drive has been the most freely evolving form of drag racing since it was turned into an actual competitive arena a couple of decades ago. The rules packages available at all these different events now are still free enough to let technology and advancements rule the day. It is not an era that will last forever. Rule books grow pages like cornfields grow stalks with two things, performance and time.
Drag-and-drive has always been more wholly accepting of technology than any other form of drag racing. Why? The rules have been built differently. When the concern is mainly the chassis and suspension as regulating factors, it allows the engine compartment to be a relative demilitarized zone when it comes to rules. More drag-and-drive cars use advanced forms of aftermarket fuel injection and engine management than any other form of drag racing. Additionally, more of the competitors are adept at using them than any other form.
Secondly, the cars have to perform in two adversely different circumstances. Traffic jams and wide open on the drag strip are far beyond mild differences in their tuning widows. Competitors that perform well in this arena have to do things no other drag racer has to do.
Lastly, racers in drag-and-drive, in full partnership with the aftermarket, have verged on the fearless with trying new stuff. This has led to the adoption and mastery of tech other forms of the sport are still sleeping on in many ways. It is no secret that this genre of drag racing has turned into one of the greatest real world R&D departments the aftermarket has ever known, so this only makes sense in the long run.
So, yes. In so many ways with respect to the old school trailblazers who did it not just the hard way, but the really hard way, we have gone from the stone age man to a genre of drag racing populated by land-locked rocket scientists and it only gets better from here. If someone suggested in 2005 that a small tired car with a factory based engine combination would out run the fastest Pro Modified cars on the planet at that time, you’d have been asked to stop day drinking.
Today it is a reality. Rocket science, indeed.
Written by Brian Lohnes.
