Why do they call them funny cars?
The term for the Super Stock cars dates back to the 1960s, and the original Funny Car is said to go back to 1964. The short and surprisingly simple answer is—literally—someone back in the early 1960s looked at the odd design of a basic Super Stock car with its altered wheelbase and said, “That looks funny.” What's the Difference?
Why are cars considered nonliving?
Q & A: Living and non-living things with energy
- Kinetic energy. This is the energy of something that’s moving. ...
- Gravitational potential energy. Something that’s way up high has much more gravitational potential energy than something that’s lower. ...
- Chemical potential energy. ...
- Thermal energy. ...
What are some funny car names?
Here are some ideas on how to come up with funny car names:
- Color of the Car + Your Favorite Male or Female Name Blue Bertha Green Lily Yellow Pheobe Black Mark Red John Pink Cooper
- Name your car after your favorite Car Part Shaft Wheels Dash Seats Shy Brakes Honk
- Name your car after your high school Crush or Prom date Bonnie Julian Jane Henry Brad Han
Why do they call bad cars lemons?
Why are bad cars called lemons?One possibility is that it came from early 20th century American slang, where a 'lemon' referred to “a person who is a loser, a simpleton,” as a lemon.Another possibility is that the term originated from British pool hall slang, where a 'lemon game' was a game played by a hustler.
Which is faster dragster or Funny Car?
Top fuel dragsters are the fastest class of dragsters, capable of reaching speeds of up to 150 m/s. Funny cars are basically top fuel dragsters with a body over the chassis. As a result, funny cars are usually slower than top fuelers. Top fuel dragsters frequently reach speeds of 134 m/s (300 mph) during their runs.
How many Funny Cars does John Force own?
He is a 16-time NHRA and 1 time AHRA Funny Car champion driver and a 21-time champion car owner. Force owns and drives for John Force Racing (JFR). He is one of the most dominant drag racers in the sport with 154 career victories....John ForceNationalityAmericanBornMay 4, 1949 Bell Gardens, California, USA13 more rows
How much HP do Funny Cars have?
… One cylinder of the eight cylinders of a Top Fuel dragster or a Funny Car produces 750 horsepower, equalling the entire horsepower output of a NASCAR engine! … The gasoline-powered engines of NHRA Pro Stock cars produce about 1,200 horsepower; about eight times that of the average street car!
What is the fastest Funny Car record?
Del Worsham is the new king of the funny car category, having set a new record in his Toyota Camry-lookalike dragster. Del smashed the record three times in a row at Funny Car Chaos at Texas Motorplex before settling for a 3.19-second benchmark.
How much money does a Funny Car driver make?
The base salary for Top Fuel Drivers in companies like NHRA range from $38,222 to $55,277 with the average base salary of $46,153. The total cash compensation, which includes bonus, and annual incentives, can vary anywhere from $38,360 to $56,206 with the average total cash compensation of $46,805.
How Much Is a Funny Car Worth?
Today, fielding a Funny Car team can cost between US$2.6 and US$3 million. A single carbon fiber body can cost US$70,000. Nitro Funny Car racing in 2020 has become a one-team, one-manufacturer monopoly.
Do Funny Cars shift gears?
The answer is in the clutch. Unlike a street or high-performance car that uses a manual or automatic transmission, a top-fuel dragster uses a centrifugal clutch and only operates in forward, high, and reverse.
What's the fastest 1/4 mile time ever?
Watch Rimac Nevera Go Beyond Plaid: Sets New 1/4 Mile World Record#1 8.74 seconds @ 165.52 mph (without burn out.#2 8.612 seconds @ 166.99 mph (with burn out)Record pass: 8.582 seconds at 167.51 mph (269.5 km/h)
How fast does a Funny Car go in a quarter-mile?
A Top Alcohol Dragster can travel as fast as 285 mph in the quarter-mile.
How fast did Brittany force go?
BAYTOWN, Texas — Brittany Force had the fastest pass in Houston Raceway Park history Friday to take the lead in Top Fuel qualifying at the final NHRA SpringNationals. Force broke her own speed record at the track with a 3.695-second run at 333.58 mph.
How fast is 8 seconds in a quarter-mile?
Accelerating at 1.28g (41.25 ft/s2) for 8 seconds will get you to exactly a quarter mile.
What engines are in Funny Cars?
Funny Cars are powered by the same supercharged and fuel-injected 500-inch engines as Top Fuel dragsters. Funny Cars are also similar to Top Fuel dragsters in that they do not use a transmission but rather transmit power to the huge Goodyear rear slicks through a multistage clutch assembly that is activated by timers.
How many NHRA championships did the Force win?
Force between 1987 and 1996 won sixty-seven of 203 NHRA national events, four of nine Big Bud Shootouts, and six World Championships. In 1996, with Austin Coil tuning, Force went to the final round in sixteen of nineteen national events, taking thirteen wins, one of the best records ever in Funny Car history.
What car did Gene Snow drive in 1969?
Gene Snow would record the first official 200 mph (320 km/h) pass in the Keith Black -engined, Logghe-chassised 1969 Dodge Charger, Rambunctious. One of the most famous (and popular) funny cars in NHRA history would appear in 1969: Chi-Town Hustler, a Charger prepared by Fakonas and Coil (driven by Pat Minnick ).
What was the fastest Funny Car pass?
This car would be dubbed the " Batmobile ". It would profoundly change Funny Car aerodynamics. In 1991, Jim White, driving for Leong, turned in two of the fastest Funny Car passes to date, at over 290 mph (470 km/h), and placed second to Force in the championship.
Who won the 1966 NHRA World Finals?
Schartman (working with Roy Steffey, on the "Flip-Top Fueller") would beat Chrisman for Top Funny Car at the NHRA World Finals in 1966 at Tulsa, Oklahoma, with a pass of 8.28 at 174.41 mph (280.69 km/h).
How fast was Jerry Schwartz in Mach 1?
In a virtually identical car (except the color), Ongais won a number of rounds, with passes frequently in the low sevens at over 182.16 mph (293. 16 km/h), including taking Funny Car Eliminator at the USnats.
How fast did the 1967 Top Fuel 427 go?
Nicholson would fit a Pete Robinson-built Top Fuel 427 SOHC early in the 1967 season and turn 7.90s at around 180 mph (290 km/h ), earning an eighty-six percent winning record. (The success of the Top Fuel-engined Comets would eventually prompt both Ford and Chrysler to drop funny car sponsorship.)
What was the first funny car?
The precursor of the funny car, appearing almost a decade earlier, was John Bandimere 's blown '55 Chevy. Funny cars were also preceded by the Modified Sport cars, which had fiberglass bodies, tube frames, and supercharged set-back engines even before Super Stock was conceived.
When were Funny Cars invented?
Why NHRA Funny Cars Are Called Funny Cars. The term for the Super Stock cars dates back to the 1960s, and the original Funny Car is said to go back to 1964. The short and surprisingly simple answer is—literally—someone back in the early 1960s looked at the odd design of a basic Super Stock car with its altered wheelbase and said, ...
When did people say "that looks funny"?
The short and surprisingly simple answer is—literally—someone back in the early 1960s looked at the odd design of a basic Super Stock car with its altered wheelbase and said, “That looks funny.”.
Who drove the Sachs and Sons comet?
Longtime National Dragster editor Phil Burgess wrote that many consider “the Jack Chrisman-driven Sachs & Sons Comet, which wowed the fans at the 1964 Nationals in Indianapolis . . . to be the original Funny Car.”.
Who was the first person to use the term "funny"?
Credit, he determined, went to Fran Hernandez, the head of Mercury’s racing program, who was the first to use the term “funny” in reference to these cars, perhaps in the context of “We need to beat those ‘funny’ cars.”.
Breaking Records
By 1969, the NHRA created an official Funny Car class in Top Fuel, and it’s here that the class really began to take off. Speed records were shattered with cars blazing under seven seconds through the quarter mile and cresting over 200 mph trap speeds.
Still Putting on a Show
Throughout the ’90s, funny cars started to knock on the door of 300 mph and new heroes — Tony and Cruz Pedregon and Ron Capps — joined the resilient John Force on the podium.
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Overview
History
In drag racing in the mid-1960s, Top Fuel horsepower began to be combined with bodied cars with altered wheelbases to produce the first "funny cars" (originally a derisive term).
The first funny cars were built in the early to mid-1960s. Funny Car as a class traces its roots to Super Stock, through "the intriguingly named Optional Super Stock class", to A/Factory Experimental (A/FX), which NHRA introduced in 1962, and ultimately XS (experimental stock).
Guidelines
The NHRA has strict guidelines for Funny Cars. Most of the rules relate to the engine. In short, the engines can only be V8s displacing no more than 500 cu in (8,193.53 cc). The most popular design is a Donovan, loosely based on the second generation Chrysler 426 Hemi.
There can only be two valves per cylinder. The heads are machined from aluminum billet and have no water jackets, as the high latent heat of the methanol in the fuel coupled with the brevity of th…
Safety
Many safety rules are in place to protect the driver and fans. The more visible safety devices are the twin parachutes to help stabilize and decelerate the car after crossing the finish line. Less visible precautions include roll cages and fire extinguishers.
During safety evaluations in the wake of the fatal crash of Scott Kalitta on June 21, 2008, in Englishtown, N.J., the NHRA reduced the distance of Top Fuel and Funny Car races to 1,000 fee…
NHRA Top Fuel Funny Car champions
• 1969 - Clare Sanders (Funny Car Eliminator)
• 1974 - Shirl Greer
• 1975 - Don Prudhomme
• 1976 - Don Prudhomme
Sources
• Burk, Jeff. "50 Years of Funny Cars: Part 3" in Drag Racer, November 2016, pp. 52–64.
• McClurg, Bob. "50 Years of Funny Cars: Part 2" in Drag Racer, November 2016, pp. 35–50.
• Taylor, Thom. "Beauty Beyond the Twilight Zone" in Hot Rod, April 2017, pp. 30–43.
External links
• NHRA National Hot Rod Association Website
• IHRA International Hot Rod Association Website
• Drag Race Central
• Great Lakes Nostalgia Funny Car Circuit