I was just wondering....how did they come with using the 1/4 mile as the standard for drag racing?

It's been around for a while and I am wondering if it's still pertinent in measuring a modern day car's performance or are we limiting the potential of our cars.

Your thoughts..........

 

It's definitely pertinent in measuring a modern day car's STRAIGHTLINE performance... the trap speeds most cars hit in the quarter-mile are usually a bit over the speeds you'd hit in 95% of your driving, so there isn't too much use in testing acceleration beyond that. In addition, any distance greater than a quarter-mile can put you into higher gears typically not meant for acceleration, so it becomes more of a gearing thing. Plus it just gets boring. Besides, the only time you really see test results of acceleration times for distances greater than a quarter-mile is for magazine comparisons of supercars, which have tons of speed to be exploited.

 

well said!!