drag racing facts

[russ257]

One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than thefirst 4 rows at the Daytona 500. * Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1-1/2 gallons of nitromethaneper second; a fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate with 25% lessenergy being produced. * A stock Dodge Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to drive the dragstersupercharger. * With 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, thefuel mixture is compressed into a near-solid form before ignition. Cylindersrun on the verge of hydraulic lock at full throttle. * At the stoichiometric (stoichiometry: methodology and technology by whichquantities of reactants and products in chemical reactions are determined)1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitromethane the flame front temperature measures7050 degrees F. * Nitromethane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the stacksat night is raw burning hydrogen, dissociated from atmospheric water vapor bythe searing exhaust gases. * Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arcwelder in each cylinder. * Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After ½ way, theengine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1400degrees 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 theaffected cylinders and then explodes with sufficient force to blow cylinderheads 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 averageof over 4G's. In order to reach 200 mph well before half-track, the launchacceleration approaches 8G's. * Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have completed reading thissentence. * 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 forfree, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated $1,000.00 persecond. The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.441 seconds for thequarter 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 CorvetteZ06. Over a mile up the road, a Top Fuel dragster is staged and ready to launchdown a quarter mile strip as you pass. You have the advantage of a flyingstart. You run the 'Vette hard up through the gears and blast across thestarting line and past the dragster at an honest 200 mph. The 'tree' goes greenfor both of you at that moment. The dragster launches and starts after you. You keep your foot down hard, butyou hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums and within 3seconds the dragster catches and passes you. He beats you to the finish line, aquarter mile away from where you just passed him. Think about it, from astanding start, the dragster had spotted you 200 mph and not only caught, butnearly blasted you off the road when he passed you within a mere 1320 foot longrace course. That folks, is acceleration---taken from http://www.ehowa.com

[MadBill]

Amazing stats! [Actually, more amazing still: Since Daytona is a restrictor plate race, the engines are choked down to ~450 HP. A Top Fuel car was instrumented recently (strain gauge on the driveshaft) and found to produce over 8,000 HP. So one puts out as much power as the first nine rows at Daytona!]

[cohocarl]

Acceleration:)Don Garlits is making limited runs down the strip due to the retinas in his eyes being damaged from the g-forces from what I've read. (don't forget the g-loads the chutes give also)Gotta be one hell of a ride. I think the quickest vehicle I've had is a 82 Yamaha Seca Turbo with the wastegate set at 15lbs, and that was a high 10 sec 1/4 mile. Can't imagine

[Stang2Vibe]

Top Fuel drag racing is amazing. I've only seen it on TV. Would love to see it in person. I can't even imagine how fast that is without seeing it live. I'd love to be able to make one trip in one of those dragsters--the grin that would be forced upon my face by the g forces would be stuck there for the rest of my life!

[MadBill]

In the L.A. area there is a kart track type facility where they run 300 HP V-8 rail type dragsters 2 at a time down guide tracks under full driver control. (with various safety overrides and shutdowns) Would be a real blast I'm sure!

[cohocarl]

Quote, originally posted by Stang2Vibe »Would love to see it in person.I've been to a couple IHRA events at Stanton, MI where the "pit" area is open to spectators. After each run, the motors are torn down, inspected, and re-built. The are then "test fired" up in the pits. Wow! I believe they are fired up first on alcohol, then switched over to nitro methane. That's loud, but nothing compared to when they nail it on the line. They are loud, but it's not the noise that makes you grin, it's the percussion of the explosions generated in those motors. You feel the air being beaten in and out of your lungs from the percussion.It's cool.

[Kissfan79]

Just for arguements sake , the dragster would have to almost have a record run to actually beat the Corvette. At 200mph, the Corvette would cover a 1/4 mile in 4.504 seconds. Being as the record for a top fuel dragster is 4.441 seconds.....it would have to be a record run. As I said....this is just for arguements sake......a DAMN impressive set of facts! Jim