Trivia Question

[Paul Clark]

I don't know the answer, but -
Why are dragstrips either 1/4 or 1/8 mile long?

 

[madhat]

hmmm...I looked around and couldn't find a positive answer....I would say that since the sport basically started on the street, they were used to running short distances(light to light) and it stuck. Or, so that you wouldn't get going too fast and outrun your brakes? Or, because its too expensive to build a mile long track

 

[turbofish38]

I believe it has more to do with track and field. Back in the early part of that century distance was measured in miles or fractions of it. I.e. the 440 yard sprint.

I'll be pissed if they ever change it to meters. Remember those rumors years back when the fuel cars were approaching 300MPH? NHRA thought of shortening the track to an even 1000M. I have nightmares of some dum-a$$ kid asking me "what will it run in the thousand meter"?

 

[Paul Clark]

I sure hope they never add hurdles.

 

[TURBOELKY]

duh

its because our cars can barely stay together for a 1/4 mile before something falls out of the bottom now where's my prize???

 

[Gary Wells]

I believe:
Most drag strips started as shut down military air strips, and I believe that 1/4 mile was about the longest safe race distance to give a safe shut down, and anything longer in whole #' would be 1 mile, which is and has been measured in the "flying mile" top end for years. I think that 1/8 mile strips are a pretty new/recent development in areas where there was not room for a 1/4 mile track, and a good 1/4 mile estimate could be obtained from a 1/8 mile run easier than doing any calculations for an oddball distance. just a guess, though.

 

[TURBOELKY]

1/8th mile

is just as good, since the last 1/8 there is only like a 40 mph gain in cars running really low et's, like Gary said, they can make an easy calculation in what your car would run in a 1/4 without the whole 1/4 run, plus most accidents happen on longer tracks where higher speeds are obtained.

 

[Jerryl]

Track owners insurance is probably much lower on an 1/8 mile track as well.
Plus, most 11 sec cars don't need a cage to run the 1/8.