When Larry Larson laid down a 6.16/219mph run at the tail end of Hot Rod Drag Week 2014, the internet went nuts. It went nuts crowning him the king and it went nuts reminding Andy Frost that he hadn’t gone that quick and, it went nuts speculating just how quick the truck will actually go, and on, and on, and on. Everyone in the known universe believes that the truck will eventually run into the 5s. How deeply into the 5s is anyone’s guess but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see some of the incremental numbers that Larson has laid down and what they can translate to on a clean shot. But here’s the thing.
In typical internet fashion, the king was crowned, the new ruler was on his throne and no one really bothered to ask the other guy what he planned on doing. Whether in the sheer jubilation of celebrating Larry’s accomplishment (which is an incredible accomplishment!) or the rock chucking that lots of guys were doing towards Frost (undeserved in my opinion) the question of, “What’s Andy going to do?” didn’t cross many lips. Thankfully, Andy answered it for us on a recent racer blog post over at EuroDragster.com and the short answer is that he’s not planning on turning back, giving up, or slowing down any time soon.
In short, Frost’s car has always been street legal and built for the FIA pro mod series rules. In that respect, Red Victor is at a pretty significant mechanical disadvantage to the Larson truck due to the engine being significantly smaller and the turbos also being significantly smaller. In his blog post, Frost essentially states that they are going to abandon running for the pro mod category and build the car to be competitive in whatever the hell this new class of drag cars machines like his, Larson’s Lutz’s, Bailey’s, Ahokas’s, and a handful of other cars populate these days. In truth, if he has any hope of out running Larson (in the esoteric sense, not head to head unless some money gets the two guys together) he needs to do exactly what he is doing and essentially put himself on a level plane with the truck. Overall, we think that this rules.
For decades the land speed record was passed back and forth between Englishmen and Americans. It was an awesome rivalry with national pride and performance bragging rights on the line. Ultimately, this thing could go on forever, or for as long as Larry and Andy want to get after it because if Andy’s going to come for Larry, full well knowing that it is going to take a pretty deep five second car, Larry sure as hell isn’t going to give up in the event he’s caught. The potential here is epic. Frost largely believes that he has the chassis to run the numbers but he is down on horsepower. He’s run way down in the 6.40s and we believe we have heard him say the car would go into the 30s on a good day with the wick all the way cranked up. That’s a long way from 5.80s or 5.90s….probably 5.80s and he knows it.
While we’re sure that there is a faction of people that would love to see Andy Frost walk away, speaking clearly for myself, I am glad he isn’t. Rivalries, challenges, some good old fashioned competition, and drama are great for everyone. Competition improves the breed and Andy Frost was the guy who an entire continent of drag racers was shooting for over a long period of time. He now finds himself the challenger in this great battle and while there is lots of motivation in that, there may also be some relief. Having something to chase rather than be the chased is not a position he’s been in for some time now.
The bottom line is that we’re going to be following, cheering, jeering, and screaming about this “quickest street legal” deal for a long, long time to come and that’s the best news possible.
Oh…and no one’s talking about the other car that is coming together that has the gusto to be part of this fight as well.
Huh.
OK-someone has to go first; I think until such time as Andy can come to Drag Week,he’s always gonna be second best; I’m not being nasty, I just reckon that’s the lay of the land.I think DW has been taken as the unofficial bench mark for this type of performance car,so it’s gonna take a huge shift in collective thinking for that to change.
The other thing to consider is that from the evidence I have seen.(once again,just my opinion)-Larry Larson has done it 5 times running,and seems to drive his car on the street A LOT.
Just my 2 cents; (plus ,I’m an Aussie, and we really don’t like the poms,and their horrible little cars……)
How stupid and ignorant that is, have you seen the road conditions in the UK? Just 50 miles does the same damage to your suspension as 1500 in the US… Drag week means nothing and it would cost more than the car to stay over in the US for a week with the car…
Mate, like I said; I’m not being nasty-its my personal opinion that is just how things have panned out because of the evevnt, and the huge population of the US.If you have another theory,mate I’m all ears.
And its not like the people that run Drag week built the roads-I’m sure any country you care to nominate has crappy roads,I know we do in Australia.
Thats an awfully cheap car then, less than 40,000 american dollars in that car, let me put a second mortgage on my house cuz i want 3 of them,2 to sell so i can have mine for free! Get real Jim theres over 200,000 thou in that car by now,hell i heard there was over 200,000 thou in the Sick second camaro when it was originally built
Andy has said that he won’t do drag week because of all the of the lies that hot rod magazine have posted about him and the car. And what does it matter if he doesn’t come to one event if you all want a showdown why don’t you come over here. Another thing if you look at the changes that larry makes to his truck before driving it on the street it’s basically a complete different car where’s Andy only does a couple so the real question is can it be classed as a street car of you have to change half the car in order to drive it on the street?
Btw I’m not taking anything away from larry what he done was brilliant and deserves a lot of praise but it’s the fans who make the kind of remarks about andy like ‘it doesn’t count if you don’t go drag week’ it shouldn’t matter where they do it.
I agree. I have seen videos of Frost driving his car on the street but they are short trips. Until he has driven it for five days straight over 1000 miles, almost fallen asleep at the wheel, suffered from a worn out butt and fried ears, he has not done enough to get close to Larson’s sacrifices. Plus all of this technology is American that other countries are buying/borrowing. This will always put foreign drivers at a disadvantage due to higher costs and longer wait times to receive parts. Bottom line, guys like Larson will always have an advantage. I do not see Frost catching him.
Not all the stuff is from america im sad to say,the aussies have innovated some stuff that the fast door cars do here!
Kudos to Andy for sticking to it and working towards a goal. As little as 10 to 15 years ago his car would have been the star of any NMCA or NSCA event running in one of the pro categories. At the old Orlando World Street Nationals where there was a short drive included the Red Victor would have really shined as well. Today, however, the paradigm HAS indeed changed. ‘Street-legal’ (still an awesome achievement) is simply not enough to garner the crown of quickest or fastest. The argument is valid when applied to the likes of OKC’s Street Outlaws and their race cars that are raced on un-prepped surfaces and self proclaimed as the ‘quickest cars on the street’. That doesn’t cut the mustard any more either. Still amazing what they can do, but the mark to reach is no longer on that plane. Hero status is now affixed to the folks who drive their 10-second car everywhere and throw a number down at the track then head out for a burger. The top-level of drag week competitor is on the extreme end of that spectrum, but it doesn’t diminish the achievements of a 8-second barge (think Monte carlo) driving cross-country and running their goal without engine swaps or radical changes all while in a completely-streetable, almost street-machine ride down the road. Headlights, tail lights, exhaust, etc are not on required in the ring today, but its got to use them for extended periods without a police escort across normal roads and do it for consecutive days for hours at a time. Drama is expected because even street rods that have logged thousands of miles break down and on average they don’t make more than 400hp. The new standard is running, driving, quick cars that don’t mind the miles much. This road was paved by the drives required at some street legal races and furthered with the pump gas drags and have evolved to this new standard ushered in by drag week. Its not a perfect test, but right now it seems pretty legit and separates the ‘street-legal’ from the cars that actually go down the road. I’d like to see a couple pump-gas only classes spring up too so the rest of us can see what is possible with normal fuel (non-E85). Many of us still can’t get it close and the route shouldn’t be dictated by stations that carry it.
/sermon is over – for now.
All of these fast street car guys are nuts. It’s incredible to see what can be accomplished. I have issues with Larry’s truck(not to take anything away from his accomplishment) But there is too many parts that need to be changed in order for it to run the number. I have checked out Andy’s ride but not very much. Does it drive on the street in race trim? If it does he already has a one up over Larry in my book. And what is this other car they speak of? Any links?
IMO, Andy always had and always will have the advantage of consistently low elevation, far milder temperatures, and just not that far to drive to get places.
Larry and other US folks in general either have to run much harder or go in search of locations in the US that have a chance of nice air to run the best possible numbers. Not impossible to find the same DA’s, but certainly more challenging (especially when trying to set the bar at Drag Week and will have no clue how the weather will stack up any particular day).
Just what is the average DA of tracks in the UK anyways? Talking with megasquirt James and Wacky Mick, it sounded like they’d never seen such horrendous air as was at Drag Week 2012, and that air was pretty decent! lol.
Competition is good!
Yeah but you forgot to mention the absolute crap track on which Andy Frost must race. There might be 2 tenths in that alone.
So the pro mod’s he is running with run on crap track prep too?
Lets consider something. Driving your car a number (be it large or small) surely is not the defining factor of what makes a car street legal/street car. Surely being able to drive on the street legally makes a street car a street car? Put some slicks on, drive past the police and not worry about being pulled over. The rules over here are damn strict, so when they say his car is a street car, its legal and is driven on the public highway.
Kudos to all those who complete dragweek, it sure is impressive, thats for sure. But the miles covered in drag week, the average “normal car” would be lucky to do in a year (?) The miles covered in drag is probaly close to the entire UK. And trust me when I say, the roads are crap and ttheres plenty of traffic to sit in and roundabouts, as wellas fools who cant drive.
At the end of the day its on the track where the performance is made,
Drag week is an engineering proving ground, not so much the defining factor of a street driven/legal car. What did people use to judge with before DW existed?
Im sure Andy would like to do drag week, maybe everyone could chip in to get the car there at least. And remember he’s been at this a long time, even taking rv2 to canada and winning in his street car, which ran well into the sevens on pump fuel, i’m guessing no wheelie bars and drag radials (or some other street legal tyre?) as im sure rv2 was in the uk street eliminator class.
Shouting “oh he hasn’t done drag week” aint gonna change the fact its a street legal car, driven on the public highway and is legal to do so.
Now, whats this about another car thats coming together?
Sitting in traffic with outdoor temps at 30ºC and at 40ºC are two completely different things to a cars ability to endure the road. At ~40ºC, even highway speeds get sketchy for some! There is a large number of US folks that end up with plenty of problems going on Drag Week where the elevation and heat are far from back home’s conditions. It’s not just a UK/US thing with that.
By your logic a car needs a license plate but not a radiator? Queue John Force, I’m sure he’s looking for something to do these days.
Drag week is to “fastest street car” what the Nurburgring time is to production cars. If GM and Ford have to go to Germany, Andy Frost can bring his car to the US. No one needs to sponsor or donate, it’s not our responsibility. He wants the crown, come and get it or quit chirpin’.
He won’t do Drag Week because he knows he would get spanked………
Frost cannot do a long drives like Drag Week, he runs on Alky its not going to go to far on that. Till thats addressed all this talk of Drag Week is Moot its the real reason he will never come.
Read up pal has a tune for pump gas
OK OK OK heres my dime to this discussion…first of all the daily driver class of drag week how many cars are driven daily,more than 300 days a year thru all kinds of weather,point given.As far as frost is concerned let one of the guys from Hot Rod go to the U K and ride with him for 200 miles and finish at the drag strip so he race his car n do that for 5 days in a row and include sat. n sun. day so he isnt missin 2 days of work,and if he can do that, he has the right to gripe and complain bout us over here doubtin his car..cuz i doubt if he could do the first 200 mile day let alone 5 of them and have it on video to prove so we all over will shut up{ i know i wont } Now movin on to Larry changin or takin parts off to race… the black camaro that won the year before Larry won it 5 yrs in a row plus other unlinitede cars have swapped n taken parts off so why complain about him and not the other people and to everyone thats complainin about the motor trend interview with Larry sayin he wouldnt build an all out dragweek car…the smirk on his face should of told differently and technically he didnt he built an all out dragweek TRUCK !!! lmao And the last point i want to make,someome in Hot Rod needs to ask Larry how many times he has driven the nova out of town ,raced it and driven back home, for what ive heard its more than one hand of fingers n a thumb,but i could be wrong.
I remember seeing Larry in the Nova get off the highway to the drag strip in Kansas City in the early 90’s, pull through the gates and run low 9’s, absolutely blew me away
Damn i just read most of the blog that Mr Frost put up about 2014,that is a big freekin list of sponsers he has,lets ask Larry his list of sponsers,especially for the nova ,and his wife dont count!
Having read through the comments I find this quite amusing as a lover of drag racing and cars since birth am I the only one who is looking forward to the battle the ‘who can up who’ that is going to go on between these two and any others that decide to step up to the plate and try too?! can we quite the politics and pettiness of ‘my cats blacker than yours’ and just enjoy the fact that there’s a bit of competition going on here or would you rather no one attempt to beat a record and just let the record holders hold their records for life ?????? Just saying
Who gives a shit!
Not Larry
Bring it Andy! Larry’s still got a half second left in his ride (at least) aaaaaaannnnnnnnd he can drive it over 1000 miles.
Andy frost will not be recognised by myself until he does drag week, if his car in the configuration it runs the numbers it has so far does it at drag week with all the touring in between runs, survives the 5 tracks and makes an average that is quick i will respect it otherwise he is just making unfounded claims. I am australian so it isn’t that i am pro american or anything but to prove your the best you take on the best on the same playing field and beat them at their own game. All Andy’s excuse mean to me is that he believes that his car can’t do what he says, like he doesn’t care about my opinion i don’t care for his claims
I think what many around the world need to realize is that times have changed, I used to have an 8 second street car back in the 90’s and back then it was fine to just do a few street miles and call it good.
If I were to build a car in this day and age I know that drag week would be a requirement if I were to ever make a “Fastest street car” claim today.
Another thing is that I don’t really see why Andy would have to come over here, I’ll bet that Freiburger and Finnegan could be coaxed into coming over the pond and meeting Andy on his home turf to make a Roadkill episode on Andy’s car driving 1000+ miles while racing at 5 different tracks, and if they couldn’t do it I’ll bet someone from BangShift ect. would probably do it.