That doesn't sound too excruciatingly boring, now, does it? I called my equally good friend Don Prieto, of the Prietive Group in Torrance, California, to check the facts. He suggested that the business about heat from dragster exhaust igniting the hydrogen in the atmosphere was probably hypothetical.

Prieto then reminded me of a factoid he had passed along in the days of front-engined dragsters. He said, "You know that you're in deep trouble in a dragster if you can suddenly see things clearly. That means the supercharger has been blown off the top of the engine and the raw nitromethane fuel has eaten through your visor. "

Prieto has written a terrific history of hot rods called Hot Rod Chronicle, and if anybody can capture all of that, it would be my pal Prieto. The book is beautiful as well as instructive, published by Publications International Ltd. Well worth your attention.