Slicks: The Sticky History of the World's Fastest Racing Tires

The story of drag racing is typically seen as one defined by insane horsepower. The super fuels, the massive blowers, the acceleration that is unmatched by any wheel driven vehicle on Earth.   But that actually isn't the root of the story.   The real foundation of it all? Traction. And where did that come from? It came from tire shops at first. Taking old passenger car tires and gluing more rubber on them than they were ever supposed to hold.   Next it came from a genius of a man from a small town in Massacusetts who quite literally invented the scratch built drag slick. And it's only gotten faster from there. This is the story of the genesis of traction. Of the birth of the one thing that drag racing has relied on more than nitromethane, more than superchargers, and more than steel tubing.   Slicks.   The tires that make drag racing the incredible sport that it is today.