View Poll Results: What is a car length?
When your back bumper is even with their front bumper.
29
42.03%
When there is a car length distance between you.
40
57.97%
Voters: 69. You may not vote on this poll
Racing clarification question.
the reason why i chose the first one is simply, YOUR CAR, which is what the scale for the car length is between you and him. Because if your bumper is ahead of his, you have the win. so if you have your car infront of him to his FRONT bumper, then that is ONE car length.
Originally Posted by BigBronco
the reason why i chose the first one is simply, YOUR CAR, which is what the scale for the car length is between you and him. Because if your bumper is ahead of his, you have the win. so if you have your car infront of him to his FRONT bumper, then that is ONE car length.
What he said. Technically, if your bumpers are together then there is NO distance between them (the bumpers, I mean). Define a "car length", what is that? All camaros of a certain year should be the same length, but a camaro and mustang are different lengths. So, what does all this mean? "Car length" is just a general term guys throw around as a means to establish a crude visual estimate of distance. Units of "car length" also make ones kill stories sound more exciting-but ultimately, the only thing that matters is who crossed the finish line first.
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From: Cornwall, NY
I used to think that it was a car length between you and the other car... as in, a car's length of open space... but when you really think about it... it doesnt logically make sense... I mean, Bigbronco put it the best... Plus, if you measure it as having a "car length" between your back bumper and the front bumper... then what do you call the distance between your front bumper and their front bumper, when their front bumper is at your back? Plus, wouldnt it make sense to measure the distance from the same spot on each car? I mean, they should be starting at the same position at the start of the race, so you should measure the distance as the distance between them...
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From: Greensboro, North Carolina
Originally Posted by furiouSS99
Technically, if your bumpers are together then there is NO distance between them (the bumpers, I mean). Define a "car length", what is that? All camaros of a certain year should be the same length, but a camaro and mustang are different lengths. So, what does all this mean? "Car length" is just a general term guys throw around as a means to establish a crude visual estimate of distance. Units of "car length" also make ones kill stories sound more exciting-but ultimately, the only thing that matters is who crossed the finish line first.
Would it be more exciting if I posted a street kill story like this.
<title>Killed a Mustang today</title>
:start of story: I out ran a mustang today. :end of story:
I think that is considerably less appealing to read. Ultimately, you are right, who beats who is what matters. But, this board is here for entertainment purposes. With that being said we also use bus lengths to describe kills.
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Brett Foote Thread Starter
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From: Greensboro, North Carolina
Originally Posted by MillaTK
I used to think that it was a car length between you and the other car... as in, a car's length of open space... but when you really think about it... it doesnt logically make sense... I mean, Bigbronco put it the best... Plus, if you measure it as having a "car length" between your back bumper and the front bumper... then what do you call the distance between your front bumper and their front bumper, when their front bumper is at your back? Plus, wouldnt it make sense to measure the distance from the same spot on each car? I mean, they should be starting at the same position at the start of the race, so you should measure the distance as the distance between them...
Originally Posted by 99-LS1-SS
But, this board is here for entertainment purposes. With that being said we also use bus lengths to describe kills.
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From: Miami
Unit of measurement being referred to as a car length...
Pretend the car was a 1 foot ruler.
To measure the distance from point a to point b, you stick the ruler between the two points.
Therefore, the vote for the 2nd choice; there would be an imaginary car between my rear bumper and his front bumper (note, I'm in front... hehehe).
Pretend the car was a 1 foot ruler.
To measure the distance from point a to point b, you stick the ruler between the two points.
Therefore, the vote for the 2nd choice; there would be an imaginary car between my rear bumper and his front bumper (note, I'm in front... hehehe).
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From: Miami
Same goes for buslength... one full city bus like in the movie SPEED.
No Jitneys, Vans, or half busses like the one in Road Trip... which reminds me, that was one bigass pair of panties... or is it a panty (singular?)... ohhh...
No Jitneys, Vans, or half busses like the one in Road Trip... which reminds me, that was one bigass pair of panties... or is it a panty (singular?)... ohhh...
well in most car races like that, i make my statement of a "car length" as your average car length. i see an AVERAGE car length as an f-bod length. civic is too short, but then again a damn cadillac deville or a damn F-350. car lengths should be taken with common sense and nothing stupid. thanks for the comment brandon.
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From: Cornwall, NY
Originally Posted by SouthFL.02.SS
Unit of measurement being referred to as a car length...
Pretend the car was a 1 foot ruler.
To measure the distance from point a to point b, you stick the ruler between the two points.
Therefore, the vote for the 2nd choice; there would be an imaginary car between my rear bumper and his front bumper (note, I'm in front... hehehe).
Pretend the car was a 1 foot ruler.
To measure the distance from point a to point b, you stick the ruler between the two points.
Therefore, the vote for the 2nd choice; there would be an imaginary car between my rear bumper and his front bumper (note, I'm in front... hehehe).
Take for example, point A is the front of car Y and point A' is the end of car Y. Point B is the front of car Z and point B' is the end of car Z. Cars Y and Z line up, with Point A=Point B. The race starts, car Y is in the lead and therefore wins the race. He had a distance of 2 cars from Point A to Point B... and 2 cars from Point A' and Point B'. However... if you look at the second choice, and you measure from different starting points... then you will get a distance of 3 lengths between A' and B. Measuring in that manner is SCIENTIFICALLY INCORRECT...
Edit... if you wanna say you just stick the "ruler" between points A and B, remember when you are talking about cars, point A and B are of such a significant size that there is a significant difference between where you measure on the car... That way, you MUST measure from the same spot on each car, and the front bumper is usually the easiest, but it works no matter where... like in the above example, there would still be 2 lengths between car Y's midpoint and car Z's midpoint...
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example a___________________________example b
When a race is judged you measure from a similar point on both vehicles. Usually in drag racing it is the front tires. For this explaination we will use the tip of the front bumper of two cars that are the same length.
Both cars start with their front bumpers exactly even. When the cars go down the track the and cross the finish line. The car (in example a) leading is 1 car length ahead of car in back. The distance between the front bumper of the car (in example a)on the left and the car on the right is on car length.
The cars in examlpe b are 2 car lengths apart.
Think of it like this.
Imagine all of the cars involved are 1 foot long from the tip of the front bumper to the tip of the back bumper. If both cars start with their front bumpers even, by the time they cross the finish line, the car on the right has his rear bumper even with the front bumper of the car on the left then the distance between the front bumpers is one foot (one car length).
This is the way that I think about it. I hope this makes sense.
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From: Greensboro, North Carolina
Originally Posted by MillaTK
Thanks for restating pretty much what I said
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From: POST OFFICE
Originally Posted by enisguy
I would say that if somebody is a car length behind you, they're a length away from your back bumper. That's how I've always used it.
I guess at the track, Milla and Bronco's theory would have more impact. On the street and for story purposes, I've always used and imagined the term as SM described it.