- Trust me, everyone has a 16-year-old dream
of drifting through the Japanese mountains
because it's been idolized on TikTok
as like, the cool thing to do, okay?
Everyone also, if not that, like, wants to become
the next Formula One driver/racer,
because it's beautiful and it's sexy,
and that's what all the cool people do.
But it actually ends up costing you like $5 million a year.
That's like just for the entry.
There's like a whole scene.
There seems to be a big thing about that, okay,
and there's been a lot of people that have talked about it,
okay but that's a little bit difficult to jump into.
Everyone has aspirations, okay,
to do those sorta things,
but it can be tough to jump into,
which can sometimes start to feel a little bit,
you feel a little under-inflated, right?
A little bit moist. (bubbling noise)
Just not the most exciting experience in the world.
So, 99% of the world goes out for a drive
in their local area until they find an open back road.
They drop it down a few gears and you just, you let her eat.
All right?
You just let her give her just a couple two, tree gears.
You have a little bit of fun.
You shake when you take your hand off the shifter,
and you're good to go.
Now, it doesn't matter if you're actually good at it or not,
if you're actually going fast or not,
or if you're going to miss the turn.
Just letting her rip is like the only thing
that you really wanna do,
because it's what young enthusiasts do to get the feeling
of what we all will know and eventually love
and it's called racing.
I'm Alex, alex.fi on Instagram.
and today we're gonna be talking about the activity
that too many people often forget about.
The activity that's honestly more fun
than it looks because it just is.
Today we're gonna be talking
about the history of drag racing.
(dubstep music)
Jake Spence keeps mouthing off
I'm gonna throw my chunkle at him.
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The history of drag racing can unofficially start when
like, the first two vehicles actually trotted off the line
and met at their very first stoplight together,
back in 19, 0, pretty much.
However, official traces take you back to California.
Like pretty much all things automotive,
in the dry lake beds, actually,
which is pretty interesting.
Vehicles in the early 20th century
were growing in stability, production,
and of course the thing that we all know and love,
people like you, and people like me, power.
All right?
So much so that with like,
a little tiny bit of proper work
here and there, giving you enough of a straight,
you were able to actually take these cars,
and go pretty darn quick.
Just short of like 200 miles an hour.
It's impressive.
It's actually a hundred miles an hour.
It's not as impressive anymore, is it?
And while the activity would grow over the years
it didn't reach its like, first full milestone until 1938,
when a man by the name
of Wally Parks helped in organizing the
Southern California Timing Association event
in the Mojave desert,
essentially the first official way for a bunch of people
that loved going fast in a straight line to do so
with a couple of guidelines, a couple rules,
and maybe a trophy or to see who was the fastest.
I mean, it was a then pretty basic competition
but it was very progressive for what it was trying to do,
because up until this point,
most enthusiasts were just driving their cars
from Los Angeles to the desert.
They're essentially ripping their fenders off
just to lose weight, and also you didn't have the
caked up dirt that would come from it.
And any other body panels that they possibly could,
and then just racing them down a straight
with other people that managed to be there.
Wally essentially tried to get some structure to it,
a little bit of makeup to make it
actually an organized event.
And as Wally and others began to be more involved.
Structure began being built
such as track times, match races,
racing group competitions, and had names,
things like the Murat Racing Association
which was sponsored by an oil company
which is actually pretty interesting.
I don't know any of those names anymore,
but it also had even dare I say,
some safety restrictions that they were putting in place so
that people could run their cars safely,
without accidentally like, bursting into flames.
The first and most notable event that took place
was in 1938 and had over 300 entrances.
If that's even the right word.
And each entrance was a dollar.
The sport became solidified and ever since
Wally Parks and a bunch of those individuals
really started to grow the sport,
it grabbed roots and just never let go.
Now, even though the world wars dampered the growth
of the sport until many Americans returned in 1945,
they returned back with some extra money, some spare time,
and the need for the adrenaline due to the effects of well,
a world war.
It'll do that to you.
So they came back and essentially the thing that they
wanted to do back in the late 30s was essentially
another thing that they were going to in the late 40s.
When the GIs came home, the sport took off, and with it,
Wally Parks' ambition to make this a big deal.
pretty much as big of a deal as he possibly could,
using his time as the editor of the Hot Rod magazine
at the time, and connections that he had pre-Dub-Dub-Two,
he managed to pull together enough veteran-fevered
automotive fanatics to start the NHRA,
something that most people should know,
which is known as the National Hot Rod Association.
This is the biggest granddaddy of them all
when it comes to groups, especially in the automotive scene.
The NHRA is huge.
Becoming their very first president all while being
within the first like, 12 months of the first official
drag strip that actually opened
during the same period of time,
essentially drag racing just
started taking off.
Everybody wanted to do it, and there's very few places
or organizations that hosted such a way
or an event to do so.
The NHRA would grow with a team of individuals
that met Parks' determination to grow the sport.
Ultimately Wally Parks is like, the guy.
We'll get to him in a little bit, but what was once
a few enthusiasts and a couple of hundred cars
became home, the NHRA to 144 racetracks hosting nearly
4,000 events every single year,
with over 85,000 active members,
which was huge.
I mean, this event is absolutely just,
the organization is large. Okay?
Fun fact for the garage talks, okay?
"Hot rod," or the term "hot rod" was coined a few years
after World War II.
There's a lot of people that say that it was
Wally Parks, but there was actually no confirmed
person that started calling it that.
But I mean, Parks did set the foundation for
drag racing and hot rodding.
So it could have been him.
He was a road test driver for GM before moving
to being a process engineer over at GM,
he eventually became the SCTA general manager.
He co-developed America's first hot rod show in Los Angeles.
He helped scale and start the Hot Rod magazine,
that he would inevitably come editor-in-chief for.
He won an Ollie award, okay,
He won "man of the decade" by Popular Hot Rodding magazine.
He won so many wards in his lifetime.
He has his own statue.
Wally Parks is a man that likely laid the foundation
for almost if not every single domestic person
that loves cars.
If you knew him and it was your grandpa,
and your grandpa was into cars, he knew Wally Parks.
If your grandma was into cars, she knew Wally Parks. Okay?
He was man of the year in 1973
he was nominated by seeing, okay.
And there are 40 more years
of successes and awards that Wally earned
during his lifetime that cemented that name
as the iconic name in the drag racing scene.
As the 60s, 70s, and 80s came around,
as either Americans moved into other countries
or were deployed for other things like the Cold War,
The past-time hobby of drag racing went with them
and the NHRA and everything that it held dear
essentially grew internationally.
Drag racing became not only just a national sport,
but a worldwide activity that had people racing in
coal mines, airports, back roads, and more.
Pretty much anywhere that they could find a straight,
people were starting to race cars
all across the world, specifically in a straight line.
And as the sport grew, the classes, the terminologies,
and the people who lived for the sport did with it.
The essential foundation was built in America
but everything past that began to grow across the world.
You had businesses like Mickey Thompson
create the first slingshot
called the "Smoking White Owl."
I mean, it was like one of the fastest cars at the time,
you had names eventually hit legendary status
like Don Garlits and Sammy Miller and more people like that
that they just developed records,
they set them and people were just insanely impressed
by how fast you can go,
and not actually run into a wall or burn into flames,
or absolutely blow up,
which is pretty tough to do when you start considering
how fast these people were going back
in the 60s and 70s.
But as drag racing has nearly had a century
of massive growth,
It's not really talked
about as much anymore with a younger group.
Like, we don't talk about it that much.
I mean, talk about going to a drag racing event on Friday
and not as many people actually really want to
participate or go, which I think is kind sorta lame.
All right?
And that has a lot to do with the fact that the,
the hobby is just a little bit more dated
than a lot of the younger hobbies
that a lot of people are finding themselves in love with.
Drag racing is a staple in the
north American automotive culture.
It's cemented the continued push of domestic car
manufacturers to create higher horsepower cars.
A lot of the trims
and a lot of the super cool rare models came
from the push of manufacturers to create a drag-racing
prepped car straight from the factory.
It created the fundamental competitiveness.
most people yearn for in the sport when it came to getting
in a car and driving in a straight line.
And if that's not enough, NHRA is second only
to NASCAR when it comes to attendance, fan audience size,
television rating, and sponsorship dollars.
I mean, it's still a big deal.
We just don't talk about it that much.
But it's like, the one thing that we all like to do
on a spare back road.
It also is the official version
of our unofficial activity on the back roads
we did when we were young,
or what we brag about when we go home and say,
we pulled buses against the base model Corvette.
That's, that's it, there's like
an official version to do this.
It's called drag racing.
Now, whether you're looking back to the basic beginnings
of Wally Parks, the explosion of the fast-paced
crazy gas concoctions of the 70s
that they mixed these chemicals together
to make these cars even faster,
or the new generation youth groups
that participate in the NHRA,
the sport continues to be revolutionary.
It continues to be huge,
and you should go out and be a part of it
if it's something that interests you.
Because it's fun, it's loud, there's flames.
And it's just cool.
What do you think about drag racing?
Let us know in the comments section below.
And of course, if you're looking for aftermarket wheels,
tires, or suspension for your newly-acquired drag vehicle
or otherwise, be sure to hit us up
over at fitmentindustries.com.
And if you're wondering if we have Beadlocks,
the answer is yes.
Okay. Overrated or not,
I just think it's super cool.
And it reminds me of the original
Need For Speed Underground days where there was
literally only one type of driving you could do
and it was driving it in a straight line and turning lanes,
and then up-shifting on the green,
which is always super difficult on some of those platforms
but either way,
let us know what you want us to talk about next.
And of course we will see you later.
Peace.
(electronic music)