Nostalgia Drags is an epic event. Once a year the most dignified old-timers shake off the dust from their wheels and have their bodies polished bright. Squinting with their dim-sighted eyes, they roll out of the dark and dusky garages, where they spend most of their lives, and head towards the ‘club’ to party hard at the most prominent event of the year for the old schoolers.
Nowhere else have I seen so many classic cars. Some of them are truly unique, like, for instance, this UFO with a transparent dome instead of a roof. These vehicles do not wear out their mechanisms and units on racing tracks, they prefer to work as showroom queens.
Looks like a museum.
When I found myself inside, I just didn’t know where to look next. Mustangs, Corvettes, Camaros of all model years. Cadillacs, Plymouths, Chevrolets, Pontiacs. Anything you want. It felt like it was an open museum day.
I have never heard half of the names of the displayed vehicles, let alone seeing them in reality. Hot rods of all colours and model years, with roofs and without them, bustling in and out of the pits, were flickering before my eyes.
The car’s interior can really tell a lot about the car’s fate. Take, for instance, an old plate fixed at the driver’s feet. Wait a second, what year does it have? 1956, Ohio. Unbelievable!
These huge old steering wheels with thin rims. Reupholstered rear seats. They are all so different.
In one of the cars the interior was trimmed with purple varnish sparkling leather, the seats in the next one were just covered with an old blanket. The lustre of well-attended old age takes turns with senility of relatively young vehicles.
It is a truly diverse event because here it takes one car 30 seconds to get to the finish line, while the next one covers the same distance in just 5 seconds. As the cars cannot boast of being young and of solid health, I expect a lot of retirements due to technical problems and the race track’s staff might need to do a lot of mopping in order to clean the track from spilled technical fluids.
In fact, apart from mopping, they also had to use a fire extinguisher. After heating up, the engine compartment of this dragster broke into flames. Much to everyone’s joy, the incident was over in seconds with no one hurt.
More fun
I met a few familiar faces. Dennis, who is driving a Camaro SS, told me he had flooded the track with oil the day before. “We are very popular now”, he said, laughing. The wheel-stand his Camaro was making, before Dennis mounted a wheelie bar, was really frightening and I was always expecting his car to flip over right on the start like a huge beetle. Epic performance! During one of the races there was a moment when the track was wet and I remember asking Dennis whether he was afraid of driving a bad-tempered drag car on a track like that. He listened to me with a smile, rubbed his hands in anticipation of the race, and said that it was even more fun.
Here’s “Mister Optimistic”, Michael. He hits 8.9 seconds behind the wheel of his 1968 Camaro, which is older than Dennis’s car but by no means less bold. He was very enthusiastic about honing his drifting skills on the dragstrip again.
In its next life his car is going to be Silvia as it goes sideways even when heating up. Are you scared? No. More fun :)
I’m really marvelled by Zealanders. Being very optimistic and cheerful, they are also always open to new extreme impressions.
All their national entertainments, like zorb or bungee jumping, are about getting really scared but be able to conquer their fear. It’s the same in drag racing. Jump higher on the start.
Or even buy a jet-propelled dragster and push the ignition button. 15-metre flames, howling, and the smell of kerosene all over the place. It is so hot that it feels like standing close to an erupting volcano. During such races people are not allowed to get closer than 50 metres. Meanwhile, there is a man inside of this monster sitting there and pushing buttons. The question is, who is the actual monster in this case? :)
Out of all the unusual cars on the dragstrip, I guess the one which stuck in my memory the most was a truck wearing mud tyres. It was the most unexpected participant. Well, it did spill some antifreeze on the track, but that was better than spilling oil, so no one got upset.
Highlights of the event
Apart from the entered classic cars of all model years including the 30s, several serious ‘battle’ dragsters also lined up in the pits. Funny cars and door slammers. They are pretty fast for shells which look like cars. 6 seconds with a trap speed of 200 mph is fast enough, don’t you agree?
An event like this could not do without the major representatives of that period. The dragsters. The good old ‘chisels’ with long noses, narrow front wheels, and huge rear slicks. I call them ‘bicycles’ for their ascetic build.
They are built on space frame chassis meaning the car consists of tubes welded together. The exterior of this construction is refined by plastic panels. As a result, the car weighs next to nothing and produces not a thousand of horsepower.
There were two good news about this type of cars. The first one was about the Australians who had come over and brought their cars. So, it’s going to be fun. And hot. And also fast and loud.
The second news — we were promised to see a Top Fuel dragster driven by Reece Fish. There are not so many places in New Zealand where it is possible to drive dragsters like that. This class is the top-stone of drag racing. The fastest cars in this discipline able to cover the distance of 402 m in less than 4 seconds are Top Fuel cars. And Reece Fish is driving one of them.
A serious car needs serious preparations and it’s impossible to cope alone here. That is why Reece is always accompanied by a big team of mechanics. The team usually comprises 8 people, not including the pilot. Anything might happen, especially when you are dealing with a ‘bird’ like a Top Fuel dragster.
They have already exploded within my knowledge. No, not that the wheels were flying every which way, but it was spectacular and flamy. That is why, when a Top Fuel car is on the starting line, I try to stay farther from the track’s barriers.
Apart from the fact that this dragster is most probably going to deafen you, it might also blow you down and even give you a burn. Besides, I can’t stand close to it during the start as its pungent exhaust gases attack the eyes. You will need a protective mask like the one worn by the pilots of particularly toxic dragsters.
I wonder how it feels to drive a 5-second arrow sitting in a tiny cockpit and facing a squealing engine brought to the limit, protected only by a helmet visor, while on each side, 30 centimetres from the temples, there are rear wheels spinning at the speed of 200 mph.
By the way, there might be more than one motor. Local experts managed to fit two V6 engines in this dragster.
Major joy
Nothing gives me more pleasure than a woman winning a race. Everyone will definitely remember the 2014 Nostalgia Drags due to the victory and the new record set by Karen Raggett. She is one of few female drivers in New Zealand’s drag racing, a mother of two children, and a driver of a 6-second dragster equipped with two turbines.
During these competitions she set a new record of 6.61 seconds with the trap speed of 206 mph. Hail to the title of the fastest woman in New Zealand who has ever taken part in drag racing! That was a decent victory and decent performance in the end of summer season.
