Interesting info on Top Fuel Dragsters

[B-Man]

* 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 Top Fuel dragster engine consumes 1&½ gallons

of nitro methane per second; a fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at

the same rate with 25% less energy being produced.

* A stock Dodge 426 Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to drive the

dragster's 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 nitro methane 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. After 1/2

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 red-line is actually quite high at 9500 rpm.

* 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

$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 riding the average $250,000 Honda MotoGP bike.

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 RC211V hard up through the gears and blast across the starting

line and past the dragster at an honest 200 mph (293 ft/sec). The 'tree'

goes green for both of you at that moment.

The dragster launches and starts after you.

You keep your wrist cranked 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 !!

[Guest INASNT]

for fark sake this has been posted on every known car forum atleast twice before

[craz0]

Very good read thanks for that

[B-Man]

for fark sake this has been posted on every known car forum atleast twice before

I beg your pardon ! I am so sorry for invading into your personal forum reading time. I didn't realise that this had been posted before as I hadn't seen it myself and I thought maybe some others may enjoy.

Feel free to igonore my post or if it annoys you so much, I can delete it at your conveinience.

:upurs:

[Duncan]

b-man, you been looking too much at drag racing....we need to coax you back to the race track.....

.....remember corners?

[Damo]

Thanks for that read dude. Cant wait to go to the drags again when they open the new strip at eastern creek. I used to go all the time to calder prk when i lived in melbourne. The smell of the exhaust fumes is something else. It seriously burns your throat and singes nose hairs.

Wish the skyline had that sort of effect, without the running costs of course.

Damo

[Kaido_RR]

B-man, thanks for that info i love Drag Racing and Top fuel dragster

[awill]

* Top Fuel Engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to

light!

* Including the burnout the engine must only survive 900 revolutions

under load.

Thats nuts. I couldnt work out if it was a typo or not for a lil while till i thought bout it.

[PRO_32]

Man thas and excellent read , There's some interesting comparo's there ,

Man you gotta love power.