When thinking of feeling the actual force and speed of a car, I always look to 2 factors:
1) Horsepower to Weight Ratio
2) "Hook Up Power"- the actual ability for the car's power to be laid directly, or as much as possible into the ground itself.
There are so many fast cars built that can't transfer the power the ground and thus, just get stuck a bit when trying to take off.
You can plan a great deal but only until is the car done and you test it, will you know if it really sits, grabs and launches.
When I was in college, I used to go on Saturday nights to watch guys race in the streets. It was obviously illegal and these guys
made a business out of it. If the money was big enough, they would leave the normal 1/4 mile spot and take it to the highway, stop traffic
(although at 2:00 am or 3:00 am, there wasn't much of it), lay down the bleach and race. I saw a guy come up from Virginia in a Pontiac with
a parachute. They put down about $10,000 plus side money and led about 21 cars down to do the race.
It all ended when a crash led to the death of one of the drivers which I personally witnessed from just about 20 feet away. I will never forget the
furious sound of it all and the speed in which the chaos ensued.
