| Author | Message | ||
     U4euh  |
Emailed to me from another board, kinda interesting. 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 11.2 gallons 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 seen 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. Under way, 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 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. Top Fuel Engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light! 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. Now that is acceleration! HBJ emailed to me from another board. | ||
| Johnnylunchbox |
Good read | ||
| Jlnance  |
So do you just throw the dragsters engine away after a run? I can't imagine that it lasts very long.  | ||
| X1tx  |
They typically do a rebuild between runs. Replace the burned pistons, etc. Buddy of mine worked on a funny car at the Houston round a while back. They gave him a used con-rod. That thing is BEEFY. I've also heard that the NHRA limits the final drive ratios they can use in TF. If they could use anything they wanted those cars would dip into the 3's. Of course, that would eliminate 3/4 of the tracks on the schedule because they wouldn't have nearly enough runoff. | ||
| Cataract2 |
Looks at Buell. hmmm...... | ||
| Davegess |
That is quite fun, the ending is very similar to something Ken Purdy wrote in the 50's about the 1939 GP Mercedes. | ||
| Drfuyutsuki |
Cataract... I know what your thinking and personally I dont want something like that, that close to my .... um yeah.... buell. What were you thinking? Good read and more useless information crammed into my cranium | ||
| Cataract2 |
Ohhh come on Drfuyutsuki. Think about how you'll explain how you died at the gates of heaven. Be a good one I bet. | ||
| Gschuette  |
Motor Trend had a similiar article a while back. It is amazing how violent and powerful those engines are. | ||
| Blake |
Cool. | ||
| Scrap |
Bitchin, can I drive one? | ||
| Hanses25  |
Sweeeeeet!!!!!!!! | ||
| Wyckedflesh  |
Try standing less then 5 feet from one when they let it rip...even at a half throttle warm up blast in the pit, the exhaust blast will feel like someone just punched you with a full body fist...  | ||
| Ftd  |
Check them out on ESPN2 this weekend. First NHRA race of the season from Pomona. Qualifying is on late Sat. night and finals Sunday 7-10 (EST). FYI Frank | ||
| Ceejay |
even watching those guys on TV is a rush, put it through your reciever turn it up and drink a beer, if you can't be there of course. My son-not quite a year old, will come running-as much as he can run anyway, from wherever he is in the house just to get a better view/listen. good entertainment. |
