Is it the car or the drivers skill

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On the drag strip is it down to the drivers skill or the quality of the car setup? Both factors clearly play into the mix here but does one make a substantial difference?

Would a bad driver lose enough time to make up for a 100bhp power difference?
 
Driver skill plays a big part when getting times down. It all comes down to practice with a lot of trial and error.
Unless the car is set up to do it all for you for example auto box with launch control then it takes a lot of skill to get the balance right.
 
People think drag racing is easy.

Try it. In a roundy roundy race you can make a mistake and will usually have the time to recover. On the strip, one mistake and you lose.

If the good driver's car has 50bhp and the bad driver has 150, then only a really bad driver would lose as he has 3 times the power.

However, if one car had 700 and the other 800 it is more likely that the good driver in the lower horsepower car would win as it is much more difficult to handle that much power and the percentage difference is far less.

Car setup is very important. You won't be very fast if the car tries to put you in the wall each time you change gear :)
 
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I would say a top driver is worth more than 100bhp compared to an average driver let alone a bad one (that is with high power cars)

as og says the more power you have the more difference a good run makes.

And it really isnt easy - Last year I did maybe half a dozen runs at the pod . Didnt manage or get close to a perfect run once
 
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Just as an example when I attended santapod for the torque cars meet last year I almost lost against a corsa.
My car is just shy of 600bhp so quite a big difference from the corsa. The corsa to be fair wasn't completely stock but would never have a chance if I hadn't messed up my start so badly.
As OG stated above drag racing is not as easy as people think it is. The more power you have the less room for error there is.
I let the clutch out slightly too quickly with revs at 4k and had the back end all the way out. Traction control turned off ;)
Anyone that was there that day and watched that run if they could comment on what it was like. From inside the car was quite scary when heading in the direction of the side wall.
For information the corsa finished around 15 seconds at 87 mph and mine was 14 seconds at 118 mph so you can probably work out from that how much time I lost on the line.
I think one of the other guys down with us that day were the ones that dumped a load of oil on the strip. Don't quote me on that though :)
 
My problem was trying to work out how to best set up the launch control

After a few complete numpty lauches I asked for some help from an experienced driver I know whon runs in the HKS series and afetr a few better attempts I finally got things sussed
On my final run I got off the line well (LC really is impressive once sussed) Unfortunately I got too excited and completely missed 4th gear

I coasted over the line still in nuetral at 101 mph in 13.09 . My 1000ft speed was some 6mph faster.

One day I will get it all right (maybe)

dont let anyone tell you drag racing is easy.
 
A really good driver and a average driver with the same power, traction, weight. ect Both drivers best times would be different, but their average times would be night and day!
 
Agree that there is a lot more than meets the eye in setting the best/fastest ET.
Like most things in life practice makes perfect---- Most of the time.
 
And then there is bracket racing, a whole new ballgame. Both drivers state a time they won't beat. The difference between the times is programmed into the staging lights. So, for example, a driver who set a time of 10.5 seconds will get the green light 0.5 second before the driver who set a time of 10 seconds. In order to win you have to cross the line first without going faster than your stated time.
 
And that is where a real pro will shine as they should be able to consistently get very close to their target time
 

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