What It's Like To Drive A Stock Car Through A Drive-Through

It's not exactly a practical drive-through vehicle.

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Picture this: you’ve just wrapped up your stock car race, and you’re hungry. Nothing sounds like it’ll hit the spot quite as well as some McDonald’s chicken nuggets, but your street car just isn’t going to get you there fast enough to satisfy your craving. Why not just head to the drive-through in your racer instead?

The Stradman learned the hard way that this just doesn’t work as well as you’d want. Watch him struggle here:

If you were thinking that taking a stock car through a drive-through would be easy, I’ve got some bad news for you: it is about the farthest thing from it. Aside from the stunt being seriously illegal (yes, this is the part where I tell you not to try this at home), The Stradman could barely get the car out of first gear. He, like every other first-time manual driver, stalls the car more times than you can count in an effort to get moving. That’s not exactly conducive to easy drive-through transit, since there are few things more embarrassing than stalling while people are watching.

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Also not conducive is the noise. Race cars are loud. Like, really loud. Like, “can barely hear to place an order” loud. Not only are you pissing off everyone who lives in the area, but you’re making some poor minimum-wage worker deal with your shit, which they frankly do not get paid enough for.

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And then there’s driver and passenger comfort, which is nonexistent. I have no interest in trying to slide in and out of a window after my McDonald’s run, after which point I am usually loosening a few notches in my belt. It’s also uncomfortable and hot as balls. The last thing I’d really want is to sweat out all my fluids, then eat some extremely greasy, salty food.

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Needless to say, you shouldn’t be trying this at home. A stock car doesn’t have lights or pretty much any other road-legal accoutrements, and the first gear goes up to 60 miles per hour. There’s a reason you’re not taking a NASCAR car to work every day. And there’s a reason why it’s about the worst possible choice you could imagine for a drive-through vehicle.