Over the last 13 or so years I’ve made at least 70 passes down sanctioned quarter-mile drag strips, most of which involved piloting cars not ideally suited for such activity. By not ideally suited, I’m talking old school Taurus SHOs with manual transmissions that tended to explode after a bit of abuse. But those years were some of the best motoring fun of my automotive career, and in the process I gained a well-rounded, basic education on the sport of drag racing, from proper staging etiquette to analyzing the numbers on the all-important time slip. And through it all, never once did I experience a breakdown at the track. You probably see where this is headed.
