As we have proven over the years, people will race whatever is available to them, literally. Take Thailand for example. These guys race all kinds of neat stuff. There’s small displacement diesel trucks, tiny two stroke motorcycles, and 100mph tractors that were designed to be walked behind in the field. This video is the “in car” perspective of riding one of those highly modified tractors as it streaks down a strip at (we think) 100mph. The operator stands on a sulkie behind the engine which he is effectively holding onto with long poles. We’re not sure if these are gas or diesel powered but we do know that it shoots a header flame out of the exhaust pipe and it looks scarier than a bucketload of pissed off snakes to ride down the track. As you will see, it appears that the engine has a very heavy flywheel attached to it that gets spun up by the rider before the belt drive is engaged and the guy rockets down the strip. Technically he rockets down the outer edge of the strip, but you get the point.

This is real hot rodding creativity and it is the end result of what has probably been 50+ years of escalation. You know was well as we do that this started with a guy who was able to get his tractor to work at running speed and then another guy decided to ramp his machine up to beat the first guy and then next thing you know, drag strip scoreboards are lighting up with 100mph equivalent numbers. We almost think that it would be worth badgering Freiburger to get these babies included on drag week. Imagine being passed by this creation on the highway!

We know very little about how these guys are modified but it obviously has had the pulleys drastically altered to get enough ratio to propel the machine at these speeds. As we said, it seems like the driver is ramping up the engine RPMs as if he is spinning up a heavy flywheel. We’re wondering if the operator decides to run on the apron of the drag strip because the groove itself is too sticky and it would pull the motor down too much on the launch. The vehicle does seem to turn the tires when he “drops the clutch” and maybe if the thing “dead hooks” the belt would get wrecked or something else would fail.

We’re obviously open to any ideas and theories that you may have about these mysterious tractors. Also, we would love to hear whether you’d actually do what these guys do with them!

PRESS PLAY BELOW TO TAKE A RIDE ON A WILDLY FAST KUBOTA TRACTOR AT A DRAGSTRIP IN THAILAND –