By Dan Strohl

Hemmings

The origins of many automotive terms often seem lost in the shrouds of history. For example, nobody yet knows for sure when and where the term “hot rod” came about, and there has always been speculation about the phrase “drag race.” After all, racers are not literally dragging anything when they line up side-by-side on the quarter-mile. Sure, you’re bound to get plenty of apocryphal explanations and suppositions, but it’s rare that these automotive terms get treated to serious linguistic study.

Gary Martin’s The Phrase Finder recently did just that, however, with an examination of the term “drag race.” Their findings note that “drag,” meaning a highway or other thoroughfare, date back to the 1570s, when roads were created by horse-drawn sledges known as drags. Elizabeth I herself didn’t refer to roads as drags, but referred to road-building equipment as drags. That use of the term then kicked around for the next 300-some years, hopping the Atlantic and becoming essentially a synonym of “street” or “road,” which gave rise to the related term “main drag,” familiar to any small-town resident across America. Thus, when hot rodders lined up for a street race, the term “drag race” was born, with “drag” referring not to what was raced (as with “monster truck racing” or “swamp buggy racing”), rather to where the race was conducted (as with “dry lakes racing” or “circle track racing”).

Or, at least, so says The Phrase Finder. What other explanations have you heard for the origins of “drag race” and of other automotive terms? Read more at Hemmings.

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

I spent the entirety of Saturday’s Coke Zero 400 in Kurt Busch’s pit stall. Dodge brand president and my old One Lap buddy Ralph Gilles was there, as was the director of Dodge Motorsports, both glued to the race along with the rest of the team. Everyone was super-accommodating about letting me get right up to the pit wall with my camera, and though I usually like to scurry all over to a variety of track vantage points during a race, this was such a primo spot that I couldn’t stand to leave. Not even for a minute. Read more…

Continue reading "In The No. 2 Pit At Daytona" »

By Michael Berenis

Tampa Sports Car Examiner

Word to the wise! If you are going to street race, don’t launch behind a blind intersection. Asking for trouble, two street racers launch their rides only to collide with the unexpected as they promptly fail at life. There’s a reason street racing is illegal, and this is it. Think before you race, keep it on the track. Read more about the wreck at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

This is what it looked like from the No. 2 pit box when Mark Martin drove down the pit lane in flames following the big wreck during Saturday’s Sprint Cup race in Daytona. When you’re this close to the action, it’s hard to see what all’s going on further down the line, and the TNT television broadcast was too caught up with replaying The Big One to give much live coverage of Martin’s fire. So when the MRN radio announcer said moments later with horror in his voice that Martin’s car was “completely engulfed,” I had that heart-in-my-throat feeling right up until I heard Martin, having being dragged from the smoldering hulk by members of Jimmie Johnson’s pit crew, saying in the post-wreck interview that “it looked a lot worse than it was.” Having witnessed a nasty disfiguring pit fire once before, those words were beyond music to my ears. One more of my pics below the jump, and click here for a much better one captured by Mark Rebilas.

Continue reading "Mark Martin’s 4th of July Fireball" »

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Being that the Challenger was making its official debut in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series this weekend, Dodge invited Challenger owners to come enjoy the VIP treatment for the show at Daytona. A bunch of them jumped on the chance to enjoy admission to both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup races, catered lunch, and reserved Challengers-only parking. I went with a couple of the guys from Dodge’s agency to check out the parking lot, and it was like a mini Challenger show out there. Apart from the lambo-doored Plum Crazy purple R/T and the SRT with the mirror-lined engine compartment, there wasn’t a lot of over-the-top custom work, but it was a great opportunity to look at all the subtle variations in badging and trim as well as the array of ready-to-wear gingerbread available from Mopar, and to get some idea of what I’d want my Challenger to look like if I ever got one. I think my favorite was the mostly-debadged stealth olive-gray with the black painted steelies. Though I also liked the couple of Inferno Reds, which will always remind me of the R/T I drove down the Oregon Coast with Chris a couple years back. More pics below the jump–which one’s your favorite?

Continue reading "Challenger Corral At Daytona" »

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Nationwide Series win on Friday was one of those fairytale moments that doesn’t come twice. I was watching from the pit lane as that ghostly No. 3 Wrangler car, one of Earnhardt Sr.’s most recognizable old paint schemes, sailed across Daytona’s start/finish line under the lights, and though I was far from the grandstands, the wild roar of the crowd and and that rapid-fire sparkle of hundreds of popping camera flashes hinted at the catharsis that was unfolding there. This win was a long time coming, and on the hallowed grounds of Daytona that will forever link father and son in both motorsports history and American folk memory, the closing of this particular chapter of the Earnhardt story could not have been more perfect. Read more…

Continue reading "Junior: “If We Didn’t Win, What A Waste of Time”" »

By Karan Singh

StreetFire.net

Brandon from Cobb Surgeline Tuning in Portland, Oregon shows off his completely modified 2002 “Bugeye” Subaru WRX.

Brandon’s Badass Bugeye Subaru WRX

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

It’s really hard to beat a black ’67 GTX, and Daren’s car is incredible.

By Michael Berenis

Tampa Sports Car Examiner

This Porsche is one that would make Batman envious. It has a boost system similar to F1 KERS, allowing extra power delivered by electric motors to infiltrate the driveline giving it that extra edge over competition.  Read more about the technological marvel at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

And thanks to Mykhael for sending in this pic!