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cheer as Bruce Ropner in a "slow" 4.7 litre AC Cobra battled gamely against overwhelming odds. This autumn he'll be able to tackle the big American aces on their own ground.

Los Palmos, back in its own territory in California has covered the standing quarter-mile in 8.3 seconds with a terminal speed of, as we said before, 177m.p.h. Now in the hands of the Croft Drag Racing Partnership an attempt is to be made on this record. Preparation is going ahead on the Dragster at Croft Autodrome, but Los Palmos can never be run in earnest there because of the uneven surface - a half inch bump can mean disaster - and "too short" runs.

Dragging is the noisiest, excitingest and most colourful motorsport you're ever likely to come across.

The multi-shaped dragsters, from low-slung ground huggers with jet engines inboard and old-fashioned bodies with zoom motors, to modified sports cars, are guaranteed to blast your eardrums as they take-off for a quarter mile run amid a fantastic engine sound and the stench of burning tyre rubber. They use more gallons to the mile than miles to the gallon and race only in pairs. They are first pushed around the strip by start-cars to circulate the oil round the huge engines. They then u-turn to the starting line as the big motors are fired. Freewheel with ear-tickling blipping to the electronic timing gear and they are ready for blast-off.

The sheer volume of noise from the big supercharged V8s shakes the very ground. Undoubted master of the drag art is Don "Big Daddy" Garlits from Tampa, Florida, whose best performance in this country is 195m.p.h. for the standing quarter mile.