What's with the steering wheel on dragsters?

I was following a thread on drag racing, and stumbled upon this little video of a drag racer having a bit of misfortune on the road.

Luckily he was able to brake in time, and bring the speeding car to a safe halt.

Along the thread, someone asked an intriguing question: what's with the steering wheel (if you can even call it that) on this dragster? Do all dragsters have this type of steering wheel? And what are the benefits of this particular wheel?

To be honest, I don't have a clue, but I'm going to find out and post about it here - unless someone beats me to it in the comments, that is...

Anyone?

Steve McQueen and his Baja Boot

Pistonheads recently ran an article about the Louwman Museum in The Hague, a not-so-well-know place for car lovers. The museum has about 240 cars on display, a must-see collection of various great cars (and a few weird examples as well).

One of the cars on display is the Baja Boot, an off road vehicle built by General Motors as requested by actor Steve McQueen (who, during his lifetime, was known as a car aficionado). Back in the days, Steve apparently told the media: "I've lined me up a sweet machine for this one. Called the 'Baja Boot.' Chevy powered. Four hundred and fifty horses under the bonnet. Space frame construction. Four-wheel drive. Independent suspension. And 'smooth'! I can notch close to a hundred over a sand wash and you better believe that's moving."

Here's a small picture of Steve McQueen driving his Baja Boot - if you want to learn more, there's an article dedicated to this vehicle at Steve McQueen online.

Even more details can be found at the Baja Boot section of the Louwman Museum website - I hope your Dutch isn't too rusty though...

Welcome to my blog!

Hi everybody,

Just a little welcome message from little old me.

Most people who know me in real life, know that I am a car enthusiast (car nut would be the actual term of endearment), so I decided to turn this passion for cars into my own car related blog.

You can expect a lot of wallpapers, some news stories about cars I'm interested in, cool movies with even cooler cars, ... basically anything car related.

I hope you enjoy your stay!