The Car Tech blog

Infineon Raceway (formerly known as Sears Point) is famous outside of California for hosting racing events for national heavyweights such as NASCAR and Indy Car. But California car and racing enthusiasts know that Infineon holds a semi-weekly event called "Wednesday Night Drags".

Nearly every Wednesday throughout the year, car owners can bring their own cars or trucks and race em drag style on the historic Infineon asphalt. And when I say owners can race in their own vehicles, I mean it - depending on the night, you can see vintage muscle cars squaring off against newer pickup trucks, and of course there is an endless supply of rebuilt and custom cars to be seen here as well. According to attendee testimony, some enthusiasts show up hours before the gates open to guarantee entry, and occasionally the raceway has to turn some drivers away because the event is so popular. So what we have here today is a clip compilation of an evening at the Wednesday Night Drags - drivers and spectators arriving in a variety of vehicles and of course lots of neat looking cars burning rubber at the drags. To me, that's the best part of this compilation - just getting to check out the interesting variety of cars being put to the test on the race track. Good stuff.

With the July 4 holiday upon us, the citizens of the United States will be celebrating American traditions such as freedom, family and barbecue. Well, I can think of a couple of other American traditions worth celebrating such as muscle cars and the thrill of a race. And in today's video we get both traditions as we celebrate racing with the Pontiac Firebird Trans Am.

This fun vid is almost like a mini-movie. First, we get an evolutionary slideshow of some the beautiful birds from the past, set to the theme from WWE's Undertaker (ooh, scary!). Then we hop aboard the Trans Am as we go for a ride, street racing against a Toyota Supra. Finally, we land at the drag strip, where a more modern Firebird smokes and peels out on the asphalt. Dig the wheelie as the front end launches off the ground at 4:45 mark. Killer.

Ford's Mustang FR500CJ Cobra Jet, the latest in a long line of Mustang variants.

If there's one thing Ford Motor does well, it's cranking out variants of its modern muscle car, the Mustang. You've got the GT, GT-H, the Cobra, the GT500, the GT500KR, the Warriors in Pink edition, the California Special, the Mach 1, the Bullit, and the list goes on and on. Now Ford has yet another 'Stang variant to add to the list: the Mustang FR500CJ Cobra Jet. So, what makes the Cobra Jet different from the rest?

Named after, and inspired by, the 1968 Mustang Cobra Jet, the FR500CJ is a factory-built drag racing variant. The interior has been stripped, which helps lower the vehicle's weight to 3,300 pounds. Skinny front tires and chunky, drag slicks out back replace the standard Mustang's street tires. The power plant is a supercharged 5.4-liter 32-valve V-8 based on the motor found in the GT500. The engine will output 400 horsepower and an unknown amount of torque. I can't help but be a little disappointed that, with a name like Cobra Jet, there isn't a jet engine under the hood. I suppose NHRA doesn't allow jet engines in the FR500CJ's class. Pity.

Ford says there will be an initial 50-unit production run with the MSRP being $69,900. I'm not really sure what to think about the Cobra Jet. On the one hand, I can't help but wonder if perhaps Ford's energies could be better spent somewhere other than the drag strip. In a world where most automakers are researching and developing alternative fuels and electric/hybrid power, the FR500CJ seems a bit archaic

On the other hand, the big engines and big power of drag racing are a ton of fun. I mean, the Mustang FR500CJ Cobra Jet may be a dinosaur, but what kid doesn't like dinosaurs?