* 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 1½ 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
vapour 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 ½ 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
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.
* 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.

That, folks, is acceleration.


Maybe I should scare the author with my wild 1600tp 34pict kombi action........

kkk

Very interesting read, some of those facts are mind-boggling!! :o:thumb

so do you think you'd fit a top fuel engine in the back of the kombi?

Yea Wes, and you can watch the rear wheels overtake the front as you cautiously let the clutch out :P
Easy way to shorten the bus.
I recon with the money the spend at a meet, you could buy ~100 stock kombi's, hook 'em all together and get the same horse power reliably :alien
:vader

Great read KKK

That is amazing, imagine how hard the the ring and pinion in the diff works:o

anyone see the comparison of a v10 dodge viper and a hornet jet fighter???





the hornet won by 2.4inches over a quarter mile

Hi

Interesting read, I have also heard that they run the cam out of phase to allow for the twist in the crank. I bet the guy in the vet would have beat him if there was a corner in the track.

1302Steve

Screw the V10 viper, go straight for the 14 clynders

Dus Is Why I Love Drag Racing,
but Know that I never will be able to afford it

BAAAHH!!!! u call that acceleration....
pppfftttt my volksy...stock standard will do 0-70mph in 13 seconds (3rd gear) and it'll do a staggering top speed of 86 mph!!!! and it'll do the quarter in 20.9 seconds...now thats RAW POWER:bounce


jonno

Quote:

Originally posted by Oasis Quote: Originally posted by zac_smits anyone see the comparison of a v10 dodge viper and a hornet jet fighter??? I think one of them flies

.....one also needs a rebuild after every race, the other one doesn't.

Squiz....

Drag racing is cool
we have veedubs agaist the yank cars over here and suprize suprize the veedubs do win a lot of the time.
its always a good laugh watching the yank cars loose tho
oh and a tip for any drag race fans..............

don't stand behind a jet car! :P

squizy from what i've seen the dodge only needs a new set of brake pads on tyres, but i guess it depends how long the race is

zac

LOL!!!! yeh baja....lol i meant 25.3 seconds...i read the wrong bit...heheheheyeh...0-70mph in 25.3 seconds!!!...like i said...raw, volks made power...
i reckon it'd give ur v6 a run for its money wes....joking...lol..i wish..

jonno

That was a good read - great post!

Has anyone heard - or does anyone know of the race between Ferrari (Schumacher) new F1 car Versus the new Italian/British/other EU countries Jet fighter ... should be happening sometime over this break ...

Apparently should be a good show down

Anyone?? - Isaak

mmmm nitromethane.... *drools*
expensive sport, considering at the end of the day you can't turn a corner.... I wonder if anyone's ever done this stuff on some kind of a guide track (besides that guy who did the deceleration gee test on the train tracks in the rocket powered thingy and went blind for a while afterwards..)

I believe that there is somewhere in the states were you can drive a fueler on rails?
I did see that in Brisvagas (QLD) if you have the right amount of cash you can drive a rail with a days training??? Yikes.

yeh i read about the schumacher one...i think it's in the hearald sun cars guid or something. if i get a chance i'll scan it and post a pic for you guys n girls to read

zac

yeah i heard about the schumacher against the plane thing tonight on tv, its been done sort of before, think it was some supercar against a harrier jump jet and it was round a track aswell, and yes the plane won. the same tv program, top gear also decided to race a old jag with nitro against a harrier of the deck of an aircraft carrier........... now that was funny to watch
suprizingly jags don't fly.........and they sink aswell :o

It was a Porsche 911 and a Harrier. Quarte mile.

The Porsche won by a tiny margin. The jet had a hard time staying on the ground and left the surface just after the line...

noooooooooooooo i'm thinking of a differant time, they did it about 2-3 weeks ago, they test every car they get round this same track and decided to see how fast a harrier would do it. i think the harrier was about 37 seconds compared to there quickest car at about 1min15sec.

differant people have raced from a standing start against planes and usally win as the plane has a lot to get moving.

even so, it's still bloody interesting to watch.
has anyone see the merlin V12 roda car that is registered in camperdown area?
3000hp from an old plane engine as a registered road car. now that'd be fun
zac