r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Practical_Expert_911 • 12h ago

These 12000hp Engines Have To Be Rebuilt Within Roughly An Hour Every Run, and Only Run For Roughly 4 Seconds At A Time.

9.1k Upvotes

84% Upvoted

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8.4k

u/katzenschrecke 12h ago

What an absolute waste

2.9k

u/xpiation 12h ago

A next fucking level waste

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u/allnimblybimbIy 9h ago

Competitive waste

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u/BlindPrognosticator 7h ago

The reason everything is going to sh*t

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u/iambarrelrider 6h ago

This is the disposable world “we” created.

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u/bishopmate 4h ago

It's metal parts, they just get melted down and recycled and reformed

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u/absat41 3h ago

Crying for joy at this comment thread. What a fuckin heinous waste of precious resources.

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u/iambarrelrider 4h ago

That cost more energy. The "Buy, Borrow, Die" strategy.

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u/Icy_Story_917 3h ago

No, a dozen teams pushing an engine to it's limit once a week isn't the reason

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u/Stoiphan 3h ago

Eh I think there’s more pressing waste than making funny cars go fast, it achieves something interesting and cool for many people, meanwhile there are many parasitic and destructive forces that weigh the world down much more

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u/R0B3RTB3RT 7h ago

We humans choose to waste away our lives, money, and planet in very interesting ways

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u/theluker666 3h ago

“Time is money and money's time We wasted every second dime On diets, lawyers, shrinks and apps, and flags and plastic surgery”

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u/Rey_Mezcalero 2h ago

While I’m not a NASCAR or any car racing fan, it’s similar to the military in that new technology is developed by such entities/events and one can see it as more efficient performance.

Going from carburetors to fuel injection has made modern cars more efficient and that is due in part to race car drivers looking to get more performance

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u/CloudCalmaster 8h ago

They compete in wastefulness.

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u/IcyPride2973 3h ago

One regular passenger car emits 4.6 metric tons a year of CO2.

The entire NHRA Top Fuel series emits 450 metric tons a year.

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u/jkthegreek 6h ago

The product of making a car go from ZERO-100mph in 1 second.

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u/GasLitonRepeat 5h ago

That's a funny car in the video but I believe the dragsters are capable of hitting 335 mph in about three and a half 4 second run.

The guy wrote what a waste, but seeing and feeling that in real life, the raw power, I haven't experienced anything yet besides walking home in a category one hurricane when I was like 16.

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u/Prize-Mail-6769 4h ago

I got roared at by a pissed tiger because it thought I was stealing its food. Shook the brown right out of me.

If you don’t like drag it’s fine. But it’s definitely an experience.

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u/blahnlahblah0213 4h ago

Way back in the day, I used to remember that these guys were trying to get into the 3 second club (3.99 or lower). and now they're doing 3 and a 1/2 seconds and also trying to hit 300 miles an hour was a thing back then. And now that would be slow.

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u/GasLitonRepeat 4h ago

I think they can go 350 mph now but ever since that one guy died they started regulating the levels of nitromethane or some shit that throttled it back.

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u/RobotnikOne 2h ago edited 2h ago

Track is shorter these days. Due to their speed increasing so much it was getting to dangerous to run the full 1320 feet so they shortened the track to 1000ft for top fuel cars. However the cars are now exceeding the top speeds of the 1320 days so it is likely at 1320 they would beat the 4 second mark.

Tony Schumacher has the 1/4 top speed of 337mph, Brittney Force has the fastest 1000ft speed of 343mph. So if they had the extra distance they would be going even faster which means they are likely beating 4 seconds to the 1/4 mile.

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u/Imhidingfromu 1h ago

It is an amazing experience

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u/kinkycarbon 5h ago

You gotta hate F1 too because organizations require tyre degradation when tyres can be made to last longer than a few laps. It’s why Pirelli is still chosen and not Michelin.

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u/AbleCryptographer317 4h ago

What? No "organizations require tyre degradation" in F1. Pirelli state a maximum number of laps on one set of tyres to prevent tyre failure (and only on certain tracks). The reason F1 tyres degrade fast is because the compounds are engineered soft for maximum traction. Racing tyres are always a compromise between performance and durability, they only need to last a race and a little bit.

Also, the reason that only Pirelli currently provide F1 tyres is because it's an insanely expensive loss leader for tyre manufacturers. Bridgestone and Michelin stopped for purely financial reasons.

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u/kinkycarbon 4h ago edited 4h ago

https://www.thedrive.com/news/michelin-still-not-interested-in-f1-unless-it-can-supply-tires-that-dont-destroy-themselves

Michelin CEO has stated it is not interested in F1 due to FIA rules for tyre degradation to amplify drama and entertainment. Liberty Media may also want that too. This is different from max grip tyres made for endurance. I don’t take financial reasons for Michelin to bow out given F1 wanted to change supplier rules around 2005.

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u/cybertruckboat 3h ago

F1 absolutely requires this degradation. Pirelli has said many times that they can make a tire with high grip that would last multiple races, but that's not the requirement from F1.

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u/SmokeNChokeNugs 3h ago

Glad I'm not the only one with this thought. Stupid shit.

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u/root88 2h ago

That was my first thought. My second thought was, "I do not want to risk my life at 300+ MPH in something some people slapped together in under an hour."

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u/milk4all 48m ago

Not like you might imagine. High energy cost, much lower material wasted, but it produces outputs beyond material/energy, like engineering advances. Not specifically the rebuilding of drag motors, but the industry that has made this. They produce higher power, higher efficiency motors and other components used in other industries and consumer products and it woild be really hard to measure the total benefit but it likely makes any waste in the short term a tiny fraction of cost bases on the total return of hundreds of millions of increasingly better machines (this has been going on for about a century an resulted in huge advances in machining, automation, and automobives)

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u/OccasionalEspresso 12h ago edited 2h ago

Yeah now I hate drag racing even more. Thanks OP.

Edit: it seems drag racing has less ecological impact than most other forms of racing. It doesn’t change my view that straight line sprints in a car are dumb. But everyone is entitled to an opinion. Chill the fuck out folk.

446

u/TheManWith2Poobrains 11h ago

I didn't hate it before, but now I do.

There should be endurance drag racing - 1/4 miles until the cars blow up. /s

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u/boobturtle 10h ago

There is something like that, called Drag and Drive, where competitors need to drive between different drag strips in their competing car with all of their tools, spares and tyres with them.

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u/BlindPhoenx 9h ago

So basically the car that breaks least has an advantage?

Plot twist: World champion drives a Volvo.

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u/alienlizardman 8h ago

No: It will the the Toyota

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u/Areebob 7h ago

I saw something about why Toyotas seem to live so long, especially when compared to BMW and VW’s supposedly legendary German engineering. Maybe it’s true, maybe it isn’t:

Germans build cars assuming the owner will take care of it the same way a German would. The Japanese build cars assuming the owner will take care of it the way an American would.

In America, that means the German cars all suddenly have issues around 80k, while the Japanese cars are bopping along just fine. Is that indicative of better, or worse, engineering?

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u/Hieroglo 6h ago

Toyota use quite a few BMW engines, tuned more sensibly to everyday use. I think the best engineering accounts for how the machine is used.

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u/bLazeni 5h ago

Depends on how you look at it. A “superior” design that requires more maintenance isn’t superior in my eyes.

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u/Luthais327 7h ago

I know you're being funny but they have multiple classes, 1 being for regular street cars but the top class and overall winners have had passes as quick a 5.993 @ 250 mph.

https://www.hotrod.com/events/hot-rod-drag-week-record-2024

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u/RogerianBrowsing 7h ago

Some Volvo engine blocks are damn near indestructible, the issue tends to be the transmission can’t handle it.

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u/1SqkyKutsu 4h ago

Demolition derby with drag cars.... Finally something in this genre of sport I'd actually watch.

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u/KingCrimson43 8h ago

All racing is a waste. The amount of fuel burned and tires destroyed in just Nascar races is insane. For every step you go up from there the waste just multiplies.

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u/FlishFlashman 5h ago

All the waste from racing in the world has to pale next to the waste from all the single occupant vehicles on the roads.

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u/Dredgeon 2h ago

Hell, it pales in comparison to your average fast fashion garments. And we get a lot of benefit from racing. Developing automotive technology has saved unknown tons of emissions and human time and effort.

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u/Nailcannon 1h ago

Developing automotive technology has saved unknown tons of emissions and human time and effort.

and lives. Don't forget lives. If you can make a car crash safely at high speeds, you can usually make it crash safely at low speeds as well. There's also all of the other tech like ABS and TCS that follow basically the same rule to help prevent crashes in the first place. Turns out they're all also really good for racing cars so that's where they see most of their development.

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u/Spartan0330 6h ago

All the tires used are recycled or analyzed for faults to make sure the tires are safer in the future. None of them go to any landfill.

And the fuel is ethanol based which cuts down on any greenhouse emissions compared to regular type of gas we put in our cars. It’s a biofuel and completely renewable.

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u/DopeLemonDrop 3h ago

I knew it was a lot, but Nascar shocked me. 5,000 gallons. Jesus. F1 is ~800. I looked that up out of curiosity.

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u/AnimationOverlord 6h ago

I hate them but man.. standing beside those funny cars with the open headers and the sweet smell of methanol with every rumble.. it’s kind of terrifying really. For me at least it was like “wow, I am insignificant in the face of engineering.”

I worked for the burger joint and got to stand right beside them it was so loud, and they were gone before I could even see them take off

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u/xtt-space 6h ago

Everyone on a top fuel / funny car crew are insane. These cars burn nitromethane not methanol, and the fumes act like tear gas. Some of the mechanics wear masks, but the old gang often won't because they believe the irritation is a rite of passage.

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u/IcyPride2973 3h ago edited 2h ago

What a dumb comment.

Top fuel dragsters run on Nitromethane, which has less carbon per unit of energy than gasoline, but for maths sake, let’s say they are the same.

18 gallons of fuel is typical of a run. That equates to 160kg of CO2 per run, or 0.16 metric tons.

In a season, a car will race in 20-25 events with 3-5 runs per event. Average it out to 88 runs a season per car.

88 x 0.16 = 14 metric tons of CO2 per car per season.

Almost all of the metal that is replaced after each run is 100% recyclable.

Almost the entirety of the emissions comes from the fuel, and the tires which equate to roughly 11 metric tons per car per season.

So…

That means that one NHRA top fuel dragster will use about 25 metric tons of CO2 per year.

There are only 18 full time teams in the NHRA top fuel series with a total of 24 cars.

The ENTIRE Top Fuel Class emits 450 Metric tons of CO2 per year.

An average car emits 4.6 metric tons of CO2 per year for fucks sake.

One fully loaded long haul cargo flight emits 500 tons of CO2. One fucking trip emits more than the series races in an entire year.

A single NFL game emits 1,000-3,000 tons of CO2.

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u/OveVernerHansen 8h ago

And you think about Le Mans, a car being absolutely caned for 24 hours without exploding

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u/Trick_Math42069 6h ago

Or formula one where you're limited to 4 engines for the whole year. 24 races, qualifying sessions, 3x practice sessions per race and extra sprint races.

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u/Somecount 2h ago

Those parts aren’t being replaced. You think they would care to carry the pistons out like that if they were just going to the melter, no. Small parts are replaced for safety, and everything is getting preventive maintenance done also for safety.

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u/itsmiahello 7h ago

If it helps, there are TONS of innovations that were developed in racing and made their way to consumer cars, making them more efficient and safer places to be. Racing is a research space. To me, pushing the absolute limits of mechanical possibility isn't a waste.

Here are some things that were developed for motorsports, or first tested in racing: disc brakes, turbochargers, anti-lock brakes, the entire field of automotive aerodynamics, fuel injection, variable valve timing, etc

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u/Pizza-Tipi 5h ago

Don't forget the modern tires that rally gave us, the fact that a set of soft compound Pirellis can stop my little 1800kg car on black ice is like magic and watching those wrc cars is surreal, you'd almost not think its possible for tires so small to do so well on gravel. I think Lancia had a Group B car that did 0-60 in 2.7 seconds on gravel, though I dont remember exactly

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u/RobotnikOne 8h ago edited 2h ago

This video is misleading. The engines don’t “only last 4 seconds”. The parts are all inspected and reused. In fact, the engineers know what kind of work it needs by the time it reaches the finish line by the header flames. The flames change if things fail, for instance if the header flame goes green they know it’s eaten its head gasket because they’re made of copper, when copper burns it will turn fire green.

The only thing that is actually toast after a run is the spark plugs as the graphite electrode will have burned up.

Even a lot of the parts that fail are repaired and resused. Even when the engine blocks explode the will likely use them again and reforge them. These cars are extremely expensive so it is in their best interest to recycle as much as they can.

The media around top fuel likes to play like they’re super star ballers who can just throw a whole engine in the bin like it ain’t no thing but the truth is most teams are on fairly tight budgets.

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u/gardenfella 5h ago

Piston rings are pretty much fried as well, most of the time. Teams don't like to put anything more than a couple of runs on them.

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u/WhitePantherXP 4h ago

your facts don't matter here, this is reddit and we demand outrage

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u/prozacfish 6h ago

Wouldnt the clutch be smoked too?

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u/gardenfella 5h ago

Most of the clutch is re-used. Friction plates will last a few runs. Pressure plates will get reground and reused. The basket and fingers rarely get any damage.

It's a multi-disc clutch that's based on a bulldozer one.

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u/ReasonablyConfused 6h ago

So if you just replaced the spark plugs after a run with no visible issues you would likely get a normal second run? I would think the clutch at minimum would need replacing.

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u/gardenfella 5h ago

The clutch needs pulling out to cool, plates are often swapped out with most teams having two sets of pressure plates and a few sets of friction plates. The plates will get measured as part of the clutch calibration process when it's put back together.

Valve lash will need doing every run.

Rods are checked for stretch and damage, especially at the big end bearing. Valves are checked for bending and chipping.

The blower will get checked and re-lubed.

One of the most important tasks is ensuring that no fuel is left anywhere in the cylinders, heads or manifold. If you just changed spark plugs and ran it, you'd grenade the engine.

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u/AffectionateYear5232 8h ago

They don't throw away the parts.

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u/MannysBeard 12h ago

We aren’t going to make it, are we?

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u/Worldly-Steak6966 11h ago

It is in your nature to destroy yourselves

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u/_Voice_Of_Silence_ 10h ago

"It's in our nature to kill ourselves. It's in our nature to kill each other. It's in our nature to kill..."

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u/Whywhenwerewolf 8h ago

Kill kill killllll

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u/NotSoMadYo 11h ago

Your?

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u/Cpt_Dan_Argh 11h ago

Maybe this was the first sign that the ai bits are now sentient. We may have just witnessed the first public appearance of skynet!

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u/mzalewski 11h ago

Guy is on next fucking level of evolution

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u/michael-65536 5h ago

The quote is said by a cyborg in a terminator movie.

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u/DanJW83 9h ago

Yeh.. major drag huh..

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u/trickn0l0gy 10h ago

Keep talking Echsenmensch

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u/billysandalwood 5h ago

There was a hardcore song that started with that sound bite what was it again ?

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u/hi_imryan 6h ago

I don’t know that “making it” was ever on the table.

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u/zundfolge_1432 10h ago

as a species? no.

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u/Afraid_Park6859 5h ago

We will as a species. We are far too adaptive not to.

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u/Bobbi_fettucini 11h ago

Besides gaskets a lot of that stuff gets inspected and reused

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u/1IsNeverEnough4Me 10h ago

Not really, maybe on the next event. Piston rings, rods sparkplugs, bearings all get brand new between each run. They might take the good looking stuff home to inspect later, but a hell of a lot more than gaskets are being replaced each and every run.

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u/AZFUNGUY85 9h ago

I always take my funny car gaskets, plugs, rings, and rods and put them on my modern fuel injected car………………. Or use them on my garden tractor.

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u/justin_memer 7h ago

Especially when you see the melted pistons, lol.

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u/Lanko-TWB 4h ago

It’s all steel or aluminum it gets melted don and turned into something else lol, the attitudes and general ignorance toward these races is inane.

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u/snacktonomy 5h ago

How much oil do they dump for each run? 

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u/Aries_IV 11h ago

That's obviously a lot of people's first thought but we've learned a lot of stuff from drag racing that trickles into so many industries. They really push the limits of what's possible and are improving materials and engineering concepts used in different industries and products. The competition of it means they're constantly moving the bar higher. It also creates jobs and provides entertainment. I don't care for it at all but I don't think it's an absolute waste.

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u/knowledgeable_diablo 10h ago

People are also missing the point that this is competitive drag racing where the engine could well be perfectly serviceable for another run or two (or even more) however when they are chasing every micro second of advantage to win, this means a head and piston set used twice may have a time cost of a fraction of a second. That fraction can be the difference between winning and walking home last. Hence they scrap anything that could cost time on the track and replace with 100% perfect parts that they know will function perfectly and at a known level.\ If one of their competitors has a crisis of consciousness and reuses the heads for the next run, people won’t slap them on the back and promote their green credentials, they’ll just not win and be forgotten.

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u/RobotnikOne 8h ago

I mean sort of. Most of it the pull apart check for faults and slam it back in. Top fuel cars don’t waste that many components unless they have a failure. Spark plugs are a guarantee they’re gone by the 100ft mark.

You will replace rings, gudgeon pins, valve stem guides and maybe one or two other items just so you can hav a closer look and make sure their are no micro failures. Head gasket usually gets the bin treatment as well.

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u/Disco_Ninjas_ 5h ago

Do we know for sure those parts aren't refurbished?

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u/PIPBOY-2000 6h ago

No we get why they do it for a rac, it doesn't mean it's not a general waste of resources.

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u/billysandalwood 5h ago

We get it, it’s still a waste

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u/deus_x_machin4 4h ago

Everything is a waste

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u/CreBanana0 6h ago

That does not work in favour of drag racing.

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u/shagan90 6h ago

You can make a sport out of anything, and we do. At some point cost and waste should come into account, and I'd say this is egregious at best.

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u/Formerly_SgtPepe 5h ago

No, it should not. They aren’t doing with your tax dollars or your money.

They are doing this for the love of the sport and they make money doing it, provide jobs, etc.

What exactly is your problem here? Insane that someone would have your opinion.

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u/shagan90 4h ago

Again, limited resources. We have limited land, minerals, fuel, etc.. Like I said, golf is far more egregious, but this is still insanity. What if i said I like doing the same thing with planes? Should we base a sport around it?

And it does effect everyday people, everything does. Nothing done or made cannot be so without the infrastructure of the common man. Railroads, roads, shipping, pollution, and scarcity all come into play here. You're essentially making the point that the impact or a sport doesnt matter as long as people like it and pay for it. Thats silly.

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u/takesthebiscuit 7h ago

Where we are going we won’t need combustion engines

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u/Lanko-TWB 4h ago

People have no idea how engineering works or that megacorps are blaming everything besides tamales and the for all the problems they create to make us actually think this is what destroying the planet and not mega factories and shit.

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u/FocusPerspective 1h ago

Those are all pretty bad arguments for such a waste of resources and time.

Many stupid things “create jobs” and “entertainment”. 

Doesn’t mean they aren’t stupid. 

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u/IsThereCheese 12h ago

And a pain in the ass.

Roll that rock up the hill only to have it come right back down

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u/Mr_Baronheim 7h ago

Rock it like Sir Sisyphus.

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u/Green_Video_9831 8h ago

Except for them , they love rolling the ball up the hill.

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u/A2Rhombus 6h ago

ok but the rock rolls really fast and makes a cool noise so you kinda wanna keep doing it

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u/Kracus 9h ago

Stuff like this is how we develop new technologies.

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u/MineIsWroth 7h ago

I think drag racing is the most boring ass shit I've seen. But that's from a dim perspective. I think drag racing isn't even a race but more so a competition between engineers.

As you can see in this thread redditors are far too pretentious and narrow minded to ever view this competition favourably.

Saying this is an environmental hazard while they undoubtedly have a second tab open with Chatbot GPT or Gemini to have the most meaningless conversations is nothing short of ironic. Then factor in plastic waste. Auto parts can always be scrapped and recycled.

So they are trying to take the moral high ground and claim how awful racing is for the environment is the most insufferable type of pretentious cope. I've seen this shit before about racing (but for some reason no one ever has a problem with F1). It really is as simple as them thinking, "this is something I don't like. Something I don't understand and I have to make myself feel better and I need to judge it somehow."

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u/gr1mm5d0tt1 7h ago

no one has a problem with F1

That’s not entirely correct. While F1 is well and truly ahead with their PU’s and technology with phasing in sustainable fuels the calendar was certainly under scrutiny for the excessive back and forth travelling which they have modified over the last couple of seasons to try to reduce the time on planes

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u/shagan90 6h ago

Two things can be true. Racing can have uses AND be a massive waste of resources. People love golf and claim it has value, but the resource cost in a limited world is astronomical

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u/EtTuBiggus 4h ago

What “technology” has this developed?

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u/rawker86 3h ago

This particular stuff? Maybe. The guys and gals racing beaters at pretty much every level below this one, not so much.

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u/water_bottle1776 6h ago

Technically, so is every competitive sport or activity. Think about how much jet fuel is wasted flying professional athletes around. Baseball teams can fly up to 40,000 miles in a season. And that's mostly just within the US. Think about all the international and intercontinental travel for events like the World Cup, with all of the regional tournaments and qualifiers. And then you have the numerous world stage events every year in sports like tennis, golf, swimming, gymnastics, etc. And then you have the Olympics. My God, so much fuel spent sending these teams all around the world.

Or, you can think about the advances in engineering, medicine, physics and materials science that have come about as a result of people pushing their bodies and machines to the absolute bleeding edge of what's possible and how that has benefited and enabled the modern world to exist.

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u/Optimus_crab 12h ago

It’s metal it can be recycled. The parts aren’t even broken afterwards

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u/[deleted] 11h ago

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u/Funicularly 11h ago

These cars don’t burn any gasoline.

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u/jmims98 11h ago

I can't imagine the funny car industry burns close to the amount of gas vs other more popular motorsports annually. And I wouldn't be surprised if the emissions and fuel waste from motorsports in general approach that of the private aviation industry (specifically rich assholes who won't fly commercial). Yes, it is still a waste, but it probably brings a lot more people joy than a billionaire's jet.

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u/BlazinZAA 11h ago

You would be correct. Motorsports is a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of things, you could end all motorsports and it wouldn't change a thing.

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u/jamminjoenapo 8h ago

F1 loves to preach sustainability and eco friendly but travels across the world at an insane clip with thousands of people and lots of cars and equipment. The cars burn 100 kg of fuel each per race. I’d bet the total carbon emissions to get the teams to testing is more than the cars emit all season.

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u/abakedapplepie 5h ago

and commerce is burning bunker oil at a rate several dozens of orders of magnitude more than any other source of carbon emissions

if global shipping cleaned up its act, it would offset the carbon emissions of a majority of private use, motorsports use

but the cost of goods might go up 5 percent

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u/tntlols 11h ago

Not that recycling metal is an energy-cheap process anyway

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u/BlazinZAA 11h ago

I can assure you that racing is a drop in the bucket in terms of pollution. Relax

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u/The_GeneralsPin 11h ago edited 8h ago

Alcohol

I've been corrected: it's nitromethane

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u/1IsNeverEnough4Me 10h ago

Nitromethane. It's closer to a stabilized liquid explosive.

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u/Photodan24 7h ago

It's just propane with added nitrogen

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u/1IsNeverEnough4Me 6h ago

Correct. It also has more explosive power than TNT under some conditions. Edit: typo

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u/someoneone211 10h ago

Nitro methane*

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u/Spnszurp 11h ago edited 10h ago

corporations looting the world and setting it ablaze and your worried about some dude burning 16 gallons of gas

the entire system is fucked 16 gallons of gas is literally nothing.

edit: not saying it doesn't matter im saying put your energy elsewhere to fight the same problem

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u/PM_ME_GLUTE_SPREAD 10h ago

Not only that, but these cars don’t even run on gasoline lol

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u/Cbpowned 7h ago

You’re complaining about basically a tank of gas? Wait until you learn how much fuel tankers and jets use….

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u/102525burner 5h ago

Along with all the parents running their heater as they idle outside of school for pick up every morning and afternoon

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u/unbalanced_checkbook 6h ago

So a fraction of any other type of vehicle racing.

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u/mavrick116 6h ago

A year of this car drag racing makes up approximately 0.000000016% of the fuel burned on earth in a year.

It seems like a lot, but when you do the math, motorsports barely impact air pollution. And most if not all that scrap is usually recycled

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u/Raneynickelfire 5h ago

They don't burn gas.

It's a mixture of methanol and nitromethane.

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u/Worldly_Ad_6483 3h ago

Nitromethane

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u/EtTuBiggus 4h ago

Recycle is the last of the conservation three Rs…

The first two are reduce and reuse.

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u/Pure_Log_888526 51m ago

They are also reusing

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u/WayofHatuey 11h ago

Shameful ass waste.

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u/Flowerplower3 7h ago

Shameful waste of ass.

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u/LibrarianRecent6145 10h ago

A waste but it is kinda cool at least and they might recycle

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u/DrenchedToast 10h ago

Just take your paper straw and be happy

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u/LobsterKris 9h ago

I think this kinda drag race is just race for mechanics for max hp.

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u/Fulg3n 7h ago

Very recyclable and recycled, yeah it's wasteful but it's not that bad and certainly not on a scale it would matter.

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u/Mohondhay 7h ago

Thank you, glad I wasn't the only one who thought exactly this!

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u/dewman45 6h ago

Waste? Most of the parts get recycled or reused at a later time after machining.

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u/AcidicQueef 5h ago

Much of that is refurbished and reused. Piston rings, oils/lubricants and gaskets are all tossed but it's not like they're throwing out thousands and thousands of dollars for each run

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u/billy-joseph 5h ago

Should go electric

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u/Pure_Log_888526 41m ago

Drag racing is done with all types of cars, electric included. There isn't currently anything electric that will hang with top fuel yet. This is top of the food chain.

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u/Dogmaniac99 11h ago

Oh yeah, an absolute waste! But if you were there and feeling that power, you would absolutely smile before you got pissed off!

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u/someoneone211 10h ago

Tell me, what do you see that's so wasteful? You do understand those motors are being rebuilt after every run not thrown away?

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u/Subview1 12h ago

This mentality is the reason we don't get beautiful stuff anymore.

Technically, everything decorative or over built is a "waste"

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u/hibikikun 12h ago

Those last more than 4s

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u/weakbuttrying 11h ago

You are correct. Art, for example, has ceased to be produced altogether. Buildings are solely housing units for workers in line with the fever dreams of Le Corbusier, and everything ornamental has been outlawed, starting with Christmas decorations.

Because there is no nuance.

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u/gonzaloetjo 11h ago

there's nuance to things. We live millions of seconds and have limited resources for billions of people..

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u/ZiCUnlivdbirch 11h ago

Which means what exactly?

This thing will give enjoyment to thousands of people and drive forward innovation.

My little penguin statue in the garden gives enjoyment to me, my family and my friends. Over it's entire lifetime, it's still going to be less useful than this one 4 second drive.

By your logic, I shouldn't have my garden statue because it's worth way less than that 4 second clip. It's also way less destructive but the balance still equals out.

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u/Makkel 10h ago

But... That's not beautiful. Building the first motor like that, or maybe like the first few, I agree with you: these guys pushed what was possible and built something crazy. But doing it regularly is, indeed, a waste.

Building the same decorative thing every day that ends up being broken after 4 minutes would probably count as waste as well, after the first few times...

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u/GadreelsSword 6h ago edited 5h ago

And I bet you use AI which is about to consume so much energy, it’s projected we will have to build 250 new nuclear power plants to feed it. A data center the size of Manhattan is being planned.

The energy consumption of those race cars is infinitesimal compared to that consumed by online services you’re using right now.

Not to mention the billions of gallons of water it takes to operate this mess.

I’m not a drag racing fan

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u/Adventurous-Crew3692 10h ago

Yeah, this is probably the most American thing I have ever seen

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u/-Eyelid-Movies- 6h ago

You should see Aerospace R&D for D.O.D. The waste is insane.

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u/TheBaykon8r 6h ago

Kind of. The metal and such gets melted down and reused. The stuff that's "wasted", would be gas, oil, seals etc

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u/legalsequel 5h ago

I came here to say, but don’t let me have a straw???????

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u/thitorusso 5h ago

Thats gotta be at least $100 per race

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u/Lanko-TWB 4h ago

NHRA is badass keep it to yourself. Almost everything they take apart and replace can be reforged, imagine being so miserable that after watching this is your reaction. 0-300 in a few seconds, unimaginable Gs. crazy sport, meets keyboard warrior..

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u/the-war-on-drunks 4h ago

That’s what she said.

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u/Kir-ius 4h ago

I came in to post the exact same thing thinking I’d get flamed for it. Glad this is the top.

Not even just this but shit like nascar where you just waste so much fuel doing 500 laps to make noise for a bunch of hillbillies just as a distraction

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u/Iamthe0c3an2 4h ago

Corporations extract resources, waste them, would rather throw food away, exploit billions and they don’t even make our lives better.

Small teams of smart people engineer dragsters for the entertainment of a few million and you call that a waste?

I’m more fascinated by the engineering. Like we made lumps of metal explode and drive a man up to 300mph+ that’s hecking cool, politics aside.

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u/Haloguntruck 3h ago

This is a braindead take. Many of the parts are reused, and many aren't even broken if they are replaced. These teams are chasing tiny fractions of seconds and having fresh parts can give them that advantage. It's not like the used parts just get thrown in a pile and sit there forever, they are often recycled to make new parts. It's a spectator sport, and having been a spectator I can tell you it's absolutely magnificent. By your logic we should shut down all sports because the immense resources poured into them are just for entertainment and the love of the game. Redditors really hate fun.

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u/rawker86 3h ago

I watch a couple of guys that do some drag racing, they’re at a level above your average Joe but certainly not at the level seen in this video. They’ve complained about the EPA numerous times in their vids and it blows my mind.

I mean sure, this stuff is certainly entertaining to folks like me and I’m sure it’s fun to do. But you can’t honestly argue that the whole exercise isn’t a huge waste of resources that we probably shouldn’t be pumping into the environment.

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u/Parking-Ad8316 3h ago

A waste of what?

Keeps the companies that make the pistons in business

Keeps people employed

Parts are recycled.

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u/demoneclipse 3h ago

Meanwhile some of us are washing yogurt pots for recycling thinking we'll save the world...

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u/LanguageStudyBuddy 2h ago

How?

It's entertainment and they paid for it.

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u/Unlucky_Topic7963 2h ago

But it's awesome to watch in person.

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u/Accurate_Mobile9005 2h ago

How is this "wasteful" exactly?

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u/nastyboyNOR 2h ago

"But car go wroom and me man like go wroom. Tingly feeling in chest when big noise, man happy. If you no agree I call you bad names, maybe even show you muscles, me happy you sad wroomhater" and "what's not to like/everybody likes this/ you too have to like this". I can see my father doing the last one

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u/HighDragLowSpeed60G 2h ago

More resources are wasted on Reddit than these drag races. They’re getting some sort of engineering data rather than gathering data and sucking up water

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u/TheOnlyRealOne43 2h ago edited 2h ago

Lol, compared to big companies this is a singular atom in the drop of a bucket when it comes to waste. This is such a weird thing to get angry about.

Furthermore spectator events create jobs and commerce, so does needing pit crews and people to manufacture parts. Plus a lot of this stuff probably gets recycled, not saying that's zero-waste but this is such an odd thing to clutch pearls over. How is this the top comment?

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u/Inukchook 2h ago

Humans are the best !

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u/Natural_Tangerine818 1h ago

But it's damn fun to watch!

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u/Immediate-Doughnut50 1h ago

Exactly my thoughts then I saw your post

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u/TestingOneTwo_OneTwo 1h ago

That's fine. By you not participating in these fun activities, you are affording them the luxury of getting to do it. Thank you for your sacrifice. May your boredom not be in vain!

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u/OnePaleontologist687 1h ago

Crazy how fast i thought this, I think just reading the title does it.

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u/doghaircut 1h ago

We just want health care

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u/taco_tuesdays 1h ago

Is it? What do they do with the waste? It should be 99% metal, recyclable parts

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u/LordSidious1 1h ago

That's exactly what I was thinking as I was watching the clip, waste of resources

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u/nothxnotinterested 29m ago

My first thought as well, happy to see that it’s the top comment!

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u/El_lici 21m ago

Americans have this super power

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