A car or vehicle designed and built for drag racing, featuring lightweight construction and powerful engines that accelerate in short, straight-line races.
From 'drag' + '-ster' (a suffix meaning 'one who does' or 'specialist in'). Emerged in American English in the 1950s with organized drag racing culture, originally referring to any vehicle used in such racing.
Dragsters pushed engineering to extremes—some accelerate from 0 to 100 mph in under a second, experiencing forces stronger than astronauts during rocket launch. The word became iconic enough to influence car culture globally, even in countries without organized drag racing.
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