Dragster

[tanny]

Fun facts, or for anyone who is laboring under the misconception that they're fast:

Subject: Acceleration

*One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more

horsepower

than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500.

* Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1 gallon of

nitromethane per second; a fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the

same rate with 25% less energy being produced.

A stock Dodge Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to drive the

dragster supercharger.

*With 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive,

the fuel mixture is compressed into a near-solid form before ignition.

Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock at full throttle.

* At the stoichiometric 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitromethane the

flame

front temperature measures 7050 degrees F.

* Nitromethane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame you see above

the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen,

dissociated from atmospheric water vapor by the searing exhaust gases.

* Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output

of an arc welder in each cylinder.

* Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After, the

engine is dieseling from compression, plus the glow of exhaust valves

at

1400 degrees F. The engine can only be shut down by cutting the fuel

flow.

* If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds

up in

the affected cylinders and then explodes with sufficient force to blow

cylinder heads off the block in pieces or split the block in half.

*In order to exceed 300 mph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must

accelerate at an average of over 4G's. In order to reach 200 mph well

before half-track, the launch acceleration approaches 8G's.

* Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have completed

reading this sentence.

* Including the burnout the engine must only survive 900 revolutions

under load.

*The redline is actually quite high at 9500rpm.

* The Bottom Line; Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew

worked

for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated

US

$1,000.00 per second.

The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.441 seconds for

the

quarter mile (10/05/03, Tony Schumacher). The top speed record is

333.00

mph (533 km/h) as measured over the last 66' of the run (09/28/03

Doug

Kalitta). Putting all of this into perspective: You are driving the

average

$140,000 Lingenfelter "twin-turbo" powered Corvette Z06. Over a

mile up

the road, a Top Fuel dragster is staged and ready to launch down a

quarter

mile strip as you pass. You have the advantage of a flying start. You

run

the

'Vette hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line

and

past

the dragster at an honest 200 mph. The 'tree' goes green for

both of you at that moment. The dragster launches and starts after

you.

You keep your foot down hard, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine

that

sears your eardrums and within 3 seconds the dragster catches and

passes

you. He beats you to the finish line, a quarter mile away from where

you

just passed him. Think about it, from a standing start, the dragster

had

spotted you 200 mph and not only caught, but nearly blasted you off

the

road

when he passed you within a mere 1320 foot long race course.

That, folks, is acceleration!

[Ed]

Very interesting stuff.

[2ManyZs]

Can't forget about the noise..... the pressure waves out of the exhaust will make your eyes blurr..... and the fumes will make your eyes water from 50 feet away.

I stood in the timing tower at a local drag strip when they brought the alcohol funny cars to the line... and even they would make the whole tower shake.

[240ZX]

Tanny,

Definately some cool information. I was always curious about the sparkplug life on the top fuel diggers.

P.S. I know some people, were I work, that can produce more hot air than the 3000cfm blower and they don't even know what a Hemi is!!! Do you know what I mean?

[Gav240z]

That was a good read.