Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruce Lancaster
At the time of the Chrisman article in R&C there was a widely discussed theory, discussed by and perhaps originated by magazine guru Roger Huntington, that 1-G was an acceleration limit for drag cars. I think the idea was that a car's traction was based entirely on its weight on the tires, so that if more power was introduced at 1-G the tires would simply spin, limiting possible acceleration to 1-G no matter what.
I think the limit worked out to something like 9 seconds and 140 MPH...the Chrisman car (was it with that engine??) ended the theoretical discussion by simply blowing right through the "limit".
Obviously, the racers have never since looked back or worried about the potential limit to their acceleration!
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It's called coefficient of friction.
Huntington's theory was based on the tires that were available at the time. Soaking the tires in hydrogen peroxide was one of the first ways to increase the CF.