Drag-and-Drive Events: America’s Fastest Street-Legal Cars

The phrase “fastest street car in America” is typically used to discuss the top speeds of modern-day muscle and sports cars, not a garage-built hot rod doing that in the quarter mile. That is, at least, before the Drag and Drive addiction took the country by storm. If you haven’t followed this trend, you may be asking what Drag and Drive events are exactly and why it has become one of the fastest-growing racing events in the country.

Hot Rod Magazine’s Drag Week started this racing trend in 2005 with a 1,500-mile road trip that spanned across five different tracks in the middle of the United States and was coined to find the fastest ¼-mile street car in America. It was a tremendous success, and 17 years later, these events have become a worldwide phenomenon. In 2023 alone, 31 events brought thousands of racers to hundreds of tracks in the US, Europe, and Australia! As the popularity of these events has grown, so has the increase in rules, which have led to much steeper competition to find the fastest quarter mile street car every year.

Classes like Unlimited and the many Gasser classes are often show-stoppers that light up the scoreboards and bleachers with fast passes and massive wheel-standing launches. In contrast, Super Street, Street Machine Eliminator, and dial-your-own classes are similar to index and bracket racing, allowing slower cars to compete in Drag-and-drive events. This variety allows people to build any car they want to compete with and lowers the cost of entry to basically whatever you can afford to make and have fun with! Just make sure it can make the road trip! If you’re looking for deals on parts for your build, be sure to check out the drag race section on our website.

Every event worldwide has its flair on classes and race style, but they all work together to ensure they fit similar cars, so many racers compete in multiple events throughout the year. The typical drag-and-drive event takes place over three to five days, with racing over a 1,000-mile road trip throughout that week (Sick the Mag’s “Death Week” was a 10-day event with over a 2,000-mile drive and is the longest event to date!). Typically, you’d think that racing would be the hardest on your car, but by day two, racing becomes secondary to the drive, as daily road trips of 150-250 miles long are routine. You must follow a dedicated daily travel route, including driving through small-town America to required checkpoints, which turn into some of the coolest car shows. You are also disqualified if you fail to take a picture at a checkpoint or leave the assigned route.

Long sleepless nights are commonplace at drag-and-drive events. Drives between tracks can be so long that events like Rocky Mountain Race Week include days dedicated solely to driving to tally up the desired road trip length. These miles inflict a heavy toll on these cars, as many encounter issues that account for an attrition rate with as much as one-third of the field failing to complete the journey at any given event. One rule that every event follows is that once you start the event, to stay in competition, you can only receive help from other racers. If your car has issues and goes on a trailer for any reason, you’re out of the competition. You can still race if you fix it, but you can’t compete in a class.

With so much breakage and failure, it also highlights people's determination, bringing out heroics to keep cars in competition. In 2023, at Hot Rod Magazine’s Drag Week, Tom Bailey (Owner of Sick The Mag) had to rebuild the cylinder heads in a hotel parking lot on his twin-turbocharged Camaro to stay in competition and secure his class win to name one of the hundreds of stories you hear yearly. You may ask, “Why would you want to do this?”

My week went pretty much perfectly; the Nova performed excellently the entire trip and made its fastest street car quarter mile time of 12.56 at 107mph! We did not tow a trailer during the trip and opted to stuff everything in the trunk. Which becomes a pain, as you must unload and reload the car daily and change tires and other things. I ran Hoosier Quick Time Pro’s all week and switched between my street and track tires, but if you wanted to just drive on the tires you race, then learn more about tire ratings. We had no significant issues or slowdowns for us all week. Nonetheless, I was virtually exhausted at the end of the week and struggled the last day with nothing more than adrenaline, caffeine, and complimentary scrambled eggs keeping me upright. If you want to join the club of horsepower and sleep deprivation and need tires check out our selection of street and drag tires.

It’s genuinely addicting because, as exhausted as I was on our drive home after the event, I wished we were going to the next track to keep racing. And writing this now, I am energized to take on my next drive and drag tour. Although there are things I would change to make the trip that much better.

Cooling Systems

Cooling Systems are a crucial factor in any street car. But they are more relevant with these high-powered race cars. Electric fans and big radiator/transmission coolers are an excellent investment to save you from hurting parts sitting in traffic or climbing hills. I have a 3-row aluminum radiator with a Derale dual electric fan shroud. We have many options available in our drag-racing cooling section.

Overdrives/Lock Up Transmissions

Overdrive transmissions are also a great idea for any car and are even more necessary when running short gears and a loose converter. Having an overdrive with a lockup will help keep RPM down, keep transmission fluid cool, and prevent a meltdown inside of the converter. I have a 4.11 rear gear in my Nova with a loose torque converter, and thanks to my 700r4, I could keep the converter locked up and run freeway speeds without spinning my small block to the moon.

Fuel Injection

This is more of a personal preference, but EFI certainly spoiled me on my trip through the Carolinas and into the Tennessee mountains. Racers around us talked about changing jets and even swapping carburetors due to the elevation changes. I can honestly say I didn’t touch the controller on my FiTech Fuel Injection systems controller, and the car never had a single issue all week and ran consistently at every track. you can find all manner of EFI conversion equipment at Speedway Motors.

Trailer

An exceedingly popular item with drag and drives and is something of a cult classic now is the trailer. Single-axle trailers are allowed to be used to haul spare parts and tools for the trip and have become very convenient and popular for racers to use. If you want extra space, they are a great idea to utilize. Creativity is vital when building or finding your trailer, but these trailer organizers we offer can help!

The true beauty of a drag-and-drive event is that anyone can enter and compete. Everyone is accommodating and supportive because we all are trying to accomplish the same thing: survive the week. Whether you compete in a 12-second hot rod, a 9-second pro street muscle car, or a Promod Camaro running 6s, we all must take the same route and race the same tracks. If you are interested in running an event like this, I highly recommend doing so! Because it is truly an experience you will never forget and will likely have you hooked!