Ask ten people who they believe has the quickest street car in the world and what the minimum criteria should be to lay claim to such a prestigious title, and you’ll get ten very different responses.

Jeff Lutz and his familiar ’57 Chevrolet, a perennial frontrunner at Drag Week year in and year out.

It’s been one of the most hotly-debated topics in racing the last few years, and it’s due in large part to the creation of Hot Rod’s Drag Week back in 2005 that in many ways re-birthed the Pro Street movement of the early 1990’s, bringing about challengers from all across the land with ultra-quick street legal cars to prove they had the world’s quickest street car in what is undeniably the most grueling test of a high performance machine yet conceived. And it’s also brought about challengers from around the world for this coveted title.

The issue that’s arisen, however, and for which Drag Week is partly responsible, is that everyone with an opinion — and we all have one — has taken it upon themselves to govern what in reality cannot be governed. Beyond what the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have laid out in written law for a vehicle to be legally deemed a motor vehicle fit for travel on our roads, there are no guidelines. Nowhere in a booklet of regulations will you find that a vehicle must traverse a thousand miles and make a pass down five drag strips in five days in order to be licensed and tagged.

For years, Kansas chassis builder Larry Larson ran roughshod over Drag Week with his ’66 Chevy Nova, and even though a well-known former racer, Rod Saboury, had run quicker and faster with his street legal Corvette, though few argued that Larson had the title. It wasn’t until a man named Andy Frost, hailing from Wolverhampton, England — more than 3,000 miles by air from the United States — assembled the ultimate of street legal vehicles and knocked down the American records by a wide margin. Frost’s twin-turbocharged Vauxhall has covered the quarter-mile in 6.4-seconds, and it’s also been driven all over Wolverhampton, having passed what’s considered one of the more stringent motor vehicle assessments in the world.

Larry Larson, a five-time Unlimited class and overall winner at Drag Week.

Frost, rightfully so, claimed the title. But those here in the states didn’t like it and still don’t like it, instantly discrediting Frost, his car, and his accomplishment. Somewhere in the midst of it all, Drag Week staff elected itself the “Grand Poobah” of street legal record-setting, denying Frost’s claim and publicly calling him out to bring his car over for Drag Week if he wants the title. The majority that debate on the topic have sided with them, believing successful completion of Drag Week is the only way to claim the crown.

But that’s hogwash, and it’s not that simple, either.

Andy, who has brought his race cars stateside twice in the past, shared with us that the cost to bring his car across the North Atlantic is in the neighborhood of 20,000 British pounds, or roughly $32,000 in American currency. That, in addition to insurance and brokerage, food and lodging, plus lost income from his business back in England, and you can understand why he’s uninterested in answering a call-out, especially when he has nothing to prove.

The debate flared up over the summer when Tom Bailey dominated Drag Week, setting a new elapsed time average record in a stock-appearing but nevertheless fiberglass replica of a ’69 Camaro. Some took offense to a purpose-built, Pro Modified-style car topping Larry Larson’s former record, set in a real, steel-body Nova. But aside from a little commotion, most warmed up to Bailey’s incredible feat.

Andy Frost’s record-setting Vauxhall at the Santa Pod Raceway. Image credit: Ivan Sansom/Rose Hughes

The whole debate became muddled once more though when Jeff Lutz and some of his fellow Drag Week competitors paid a visit to Oklahoma and appeared on Discovery’s Street Outlaws program, where each of them were paired with one of the “Top 10” cars, and all lost. Whether the races were real or staged for entertainment value are questionable, but it left the Street Outlaws gang with another notch in their belts as they touted their rides as the quickest street cars in America, having beaten what many considered to be the quickest street cars in America.

Tom Bailey’s ’69 Camaro, the overall winner at Drag Week in 2013 with the first ever six-second average over five days of competition.

But not only are the cars seen on Street Outlaws not true street cars — only the Farmtruck has been shown going from one point to another without the luxury of a trailer — but if recent video is to be believed, they aren’t the quickest race cars on the street in the country anymore either. You probably won’t see that footage on Discovery ever anytime soon, but I’m going off-topic here.

The truth of the matter is that you can’t even begin to compare apples to oranges, bananas to strawberries. Every one of these gentleman has done something amazing, and their accomplishments shouldn’t — and in many cases — can’t be compared. True, Andy Frost has the quickest street legal, street-driven car in the world. Tom Bailey has the quickest overall Drag Week-finishing car, and Larry Larson is quickest to date at Drag Week with an original production car. “Daddy Dave” Comstock has the quickest street-raced race truck/car in the state of Oklahoma. Nothing more, nothing less.

Governing street cars is futile, because where do you draw the line? If a license and insurance doesn’t qualify you, what does? If it’s pure mileage, Randy Seward, who has driven 2,000 miles each way to race his 8-second Mustang, has proved more road-worthiness than anyone else.

Simply put, you can’t draw a line. You give credit where credit is due, sit back, and enjoy the fact that we have six-second, street legal vehicles to entertain us that are only getting quicker and faster by the year.