I always thought it reffered to overcoming inertia. You know, objects at rest tend to stay at rest, etc etc. Streamlining was developed to overcome drag or resistance. Standing start, overcoming "drag". Of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.
My theory,, I gotta drag the car to the chassis shop for an update, then drag it to the paintshop for a touch up, then drag it to the supermarket to make the sponser happy. Friday I get to drag it to the strip and finally get to race it. Unless it rains, then I get to drag it home and stare at it. Man what a drag!
I don't know about that but..I do know why cavemen drug them by the hair If they would of drug them by the feet, they would of filled up with mud !
In Alex Xydias' movie, *The Hot Rod Story*, Ak Miller said that when one rodder wanted to challenge another rodder to race heads up to see who was faster, they said to the challengee, *Drag it out* and we'll see who's faster....... I tend to put a lot of stock in Ak Miller's words..... Brucie
now THAT'S funny! This is a great thread! Now, any reasons why some call it a 'dragway' and some a 'dragaway'
He also said thay hated the term,"Hot Rod," that's what the squares called them; the car owners prefered,"Roadster."
I was reading about this in and older issue of the Rodder's Journal the other day. The guy from Dragmasters was one the people responsible for the inception of the word "Drag" during the early fifty's. They were the ones that built and raced "TWO-THING" and are currently restoring the moon eyes F.E.D. According to the Rodder's Journal it was derived from the fact that everything was taken off of the cars to make the lighter which led to quicker times. This was at a time when the salts were losing their popularity because the old air strips that they wre now using for racing were open all the time and could be driven to very easily. Now I am not exactly sure how that comes from the word drag but mabe it is due to extra weight "dragging" your accecleration down. This is as much from the article as I can remember.
Rand Man's explanation is absolutely correct. Back sometime in the mid to late 60's, I can remember there were some clubs trying to clean up the drag racing image, promoting Saturday night grudge races in an effort to get kids off the streets, etc. There was a group of these folks that were outraged at the news media for always using the term "drag racing" when referring to "street racing". IIRC, there was a court case being prepared, and when the origin of the term "drag" was investigated and determined to be interchangeable with the term "street", as described in Rand Man's post, the case never made it to court. And of course, the media still to this day often uses the term "drag racing" when referring to street racing. I can't believe the NHRA website posts a "donno" about this.
Its a "Drag" to sit in the staging lanes for 3 hours to make 1 pass... NHRA sportsman racing at national events is like that...
I would agree with your logic. Guessing what kind of slang or referrence was made by someone living in a different time is obviously a wasted effort. The only people who might have a clue were those deeply involved in the sport in the '40s or early '50s. We know that the first official national event was in 1955, so it would have been adapted before that. Very little of the language used in the last couple generations will have anything at all to do with it. The reasons would be more likely, if they come from someone like Ak Miller, who was racing when most of us were in diapers. The fact that NHRA and Hot Rod Magazine spead this gospel of "drag racing" would logically lead us down the Robert Peterson, Wally Parks path, to see when & why they started using the term.
When did the term "drag" start and what did it mean? Who first coined the phrase "hot rod"? Who had the first car with flames? Your never going to really know the answer to any of these questions... A curiosity, but not any more important than that.
Where I grew up we called the main street the main drag cause that's what our parents all called it. However it's real name was the Plank Road, before it was paved, it was a wooden road, I've seen old pictures, planks laid down where the wagon wheels go and dirt in the middle for the horses to get traction on. Why the hell did they call it the main drag?
Hot Rod.. I read some where many years ago that the Hearst news paper used it as a derigtory {sp] term for old cars. Some were involved in fatal wrecks on the street .. They thought it was all cars that young people drove ........This term was for their thimking that the connecting rods were hot and ready to explode....... They had a hard on for all motorized racing................. They had a campain to try to get congress to abolish all automobile racing. They claimed that to many people were getting killed.. .. Thank you.. Bobby..
Back in the 1940s the evening's entertainment often included a trip to a drive-in where you could "choose off" someone to race. It was typical to tell the guy to "drag it out". The term "drag race" was in use well before any legal drag racing started in 1949.
I go with drag=main street. I know street racing was around before tracks and from my own experience we never had to ask "drag it out" to race because we were all already driving our rods. We'd run into a car at a drive-in ( A&W etc) or a parking lot were some of the hot cars would park and tell them meet me on the main drag and off we would go. ..
I think it's called drag racing because "A Timed Automotive Competition From A Standing Start Over A Measured Distance Racing" was just too long to put on the posters promoting it. Lynn
The Jalopy Journal
