Electric RX7 drags a Dodge Viper
"Maniac Mazda" beating a gas Dodge Viper at the 1999 NEDRA National Electric Drag Races in Woodburn, Oregon.
1999 Eyewitness Video - EV Beats Dodge Viper in Drag Race
Source: Danny Ames via EVDL / YouTube
(12/16/2006)
Still think electrics are slow? If so, Danny Ames posted this quarter-mile race video which just might change your mind. If you listen carefully you'll hear the announcer state the red electric car's speed of 85 MPH at the 1/8 mile mark.
The electric Rx7 was built and driven by Roderick Wilde of EV Parts fame. Ames recorded the video during a 1999 NEDRA event in Woodburn, Oregon.
We're not sure who was in the Viper but they probably don't want people to know anyway. :^)
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lol, the viper was sandbagin it all the way....it did not even sound like he even drove as hard as that viper could go.....
i raced a viper with my 79 Z28 and his car sounded way more louder then that guy when he took off.
that was a sandbaged race all the way, if i drove that viper i would have had it come off the line a bit faster! what a looser.....
Maker of the Ex-Volt1500 and Ex-Volt1500z
I just Re-laced my first spoked wheel! and it was trued by spinning it in my hand
It looked like to me they were Bracket racing, if you watch the video it looks like the Viper hits the brakes right at the finish.
The RX7 is quicker off the line, but the Viper has a higher MPH towards the finish line. The Guy in the Viper is traveling faster at the finish then the RX7 is, but the guy in the Viper thinks he has the RX7 beat so he hits the brakes so that while he tries to cross the finish line before the RX7 he does not break out of his established ET.
Bracket racing allows cars of different classes compete against each other.
What each driver does is set an established ET which he can not break.
They then handicap the quicker car (set the lights so it leaves later) so that both cars should reach the finish line at the same time. Now that's only if they run their established ET's perfectly. This way the race is usually won or lost on the starting line. You snooze you lose is the saying. In other words if you are punching the throttle on the last of the yellow just before you get the green, you will have already lost the race.
The reason you will see some cars hit the brakes just before the finish in bracket racing is, they see that they have the other car beat, but they do not want to cross the finish line too soon and lose for being too quick (faster then their established ET).
Now the reason a car can finish quicker then their established ET is, just that, they can establish their ET at whatever they want it to be. If they establish a ET lower then what the car is capable of, they can then use the extra power to play with. If they are slow off the start, they then can then use the extra power to run the other car down and catch it.
Not as simple as top fuel or pro stock. All they have to do is get to the finish line first.
Deron.
I have a feeling this post would make a lot more sense to me if I knew what ET stood for. Does it have anything to do with Reese's Pieces? :-)
"we must be the change we wish to see in the world"
I'm with you on the Extra Terrestrial -- I was talking with some friends about Kucinich, and joked his positions jibe very close to mine including ET contact -- but I'm pretty darn sure in this case ET == Elapsed Time
- David Herron, The Long Tail Pipe, davidherron.com, 7gen.com, What is Reiki