A sufficiently good bullshit artist can usually talk his way into a backseat ride off one of Uncle Sugar's flattops, which is a slam that beats even the jet and rocket cars on a dragstrip. The ship is less than a quarter mile long and the cats use half, if even that, and you go off the bow at 200+. After that, Top Fuel or AA/FC is a yawner.
Jet dragsters are not quite as impressive, but they are still faster and far, far cheaper to run than Top Fuel. If Nitromethane went the way of hydrazine at publicly spectated events I'd shed no tears.
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L.W.( Ãill ) Hughes III
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There are jet dragsters that still hold absolute quarter mile records as far as I know.
The Fords-with chassis designed by Eric Broadley, built in England-did win one-two-three, by edict of Ford, which cost Ken Miles the championship and made Ford look like s******ds, because they were. It was a Phyrric victory that did NOTHING for Ford in the US and hurt them elsewhere and only elevated the status of Enzo Ferrari as the greatest race car constructor of all time and all the world over-without winning Indianapolis, as Maserati did (with no help from the works-twice) and P&W almost did (save the stupidity of chassis designers) with only the gift of a junk unairworthy training engine.
Of the ten most expensive vintage race cars in the world, at least eight are Ferraris.
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L.W.( Ãill ) Hughes III
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You might be thinking of the rocket cars that NHRA banned several years ago. The jets do not compare to the current Top Fuel cars.
Chris
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L.W.( Ãill ) Hughes III
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Searching the net, I am unable to find any valid jet dragster numbers. The major sanctioning bodies do not actually sanction the jets anymore, just as they don't have rocket, compressed air, or electric car classes or ones for four wheel drive vehicles. (The electric guys have NEDRA). Since these are exhibition vhicles the ET and trap speeds may be accurate, but they are not recorded by the sanctioning bodies.
What is obvious from a Web search is that most of these jet dragsters and funny cars are essentially hobby efforts and are running first and second generation jet engines long out of aircraft service. Obviously, legit competition and funds with more modern engines would drive speeds radically higher. I think Arfons was quoted as running in the low fives or high fours in the mid/late 60's.
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L.W.( Ãill ) Hughes III
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L.W.( Ãill ) Hughes III
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Bill, Do you know the difference between a rocket car and a jet car? I did not say that the jets were banned, in fact I went to see them at the local track just a few weeks ago. I do still remember going to watch my first drag race at the same track 28 years ago, and the ROCKET car that was there that night ran a 4.93 ET at 344 MPH. This was 28 years ago when the Top Fuel cars still had the short wings, they shifted gears, and they didn't have the lockup clutches like they do now. Also thousands fewer ponies too. I can't say what the TF cars were running back then, but I do know that the 4 second barrier was not broken until Eddie Hill did it the week after the US Nationals in
1988. He broke the 4 second barrier at the Texas Motorplex running a 4.93ET if my memory serves me correctly. I was at Indy that year, and Gene Snow and I believe Joe Amato were in the finals. Snow had run a 5.002 in the semi finals, and said he would get the 4 in the final, but his throttle linkage broke right after he launched. Anyway, my point here is that the rocket cars had got so fast, and I believe I remember hearing about a run that was over
400MPH and in the very low 4 second range, but that I am not sure of. I think that was when all of the sanctioning bodies started banning the rockets. Also, the Jets do sometimes hit a higher top speed than the TF cars, but I haven't seen or heard of a jet that is close to a TF car as far as ET is concerned, and ET is what counts. Now, I'm sure if someone built an unlimited jet car based on the newest jet technology, it might be a different story. I did find this page that only shows the records for a particular track.
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It shows a 3 tenths of a second difference in favor of the TF car. This ET difference at 300MPH equates to 132 feet! Not my imagination at all.
Chris
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L.W.( Ãill ) Hughes III
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Bill can be incredibly difficult to communicate with when you are saying something that does not agree with what he thinks and he will drive you nuts if you do not really, really know your stuff. I concede that in general he knows more about the details of drag racing than I do, because I have little interest in drag racing, it's just not my sport. I'm sure it's a fine sport just like curling, jai alai, or whatever. I just don't really care about those sports, or spectator sports in general.
What I have figured out is that the current TF or Funny Cars are now faster than the jets, but the jets had them beat until relatively recent times, and that all the trhust based cars-jets and rockets-are slower off the line and build their speed down the track. But that's apples vs. oranges because you are comparing a bizarre specialized propulsion system unique to fuel drag racing to a surplus engine sold for scrap price that is 50+ years old. Any jet engine made by Westinghouse is every bit of fifty years old, they quit making jet engines after the Korean War. Now if the Navy released Ottofuel II torpedo engines surplus and they started appearing drag cars maybe the solid block Hemis would be obsoleted overnight! In principle jet or rocket cars could beat even the current wheel driven cars with enough thrust to weight ratios, but not in 50 feet. Turboshaft engine dragsters, like the one Don Garlits built for exhibition, which use wheel driven power might be another matter too. Like the jets they are also apparently outside the rules.
But even if you spend hours doing the homework, line up the results, and have it all notarized Bill will just change the subject if it isn't what he likes to hear. So why bother?
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Well, I started trying to figure out what you found so humorous, but then I realized that you haven't figured that out yet either, so when you do, why don't you share it with the newsgroup? I'm sure we're all here on pins and needles waiting for this one.
Chris
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I have realized this long ago, but sometimes I forget. We all know what happens after that. ;)
Chris
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I need to correct myself here:
Anyway, my point here is that the rocket cars
To quote this site:
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Sammy's career was one of superlatives. He raced Funny Cars of the Fuel variety before switching to rockets in 1976. His Spirit of '76 was the first Rocket Funny Car and it very quickly smashed track records across the USA. Sammy's next rocket FC was the first Vanishing Point, a Vega-bodied car in which he recorded the first ever three-second pass in Florida in 1979, and in which he first broke the 300 mph barrier in Europe, at Santa Pod in July of the same year. A number of Vanishing Point FCs, the Oxygen Rocket Dragster, and a Jet Dragster followed, all of which still hold ET and speed records. He also set a world ice speed record when he put skis on the Oxygen dragster and recorded 247 mph at Lake George. Sammy also arranged the first ever rocket races, which were against Al Eierdam and which were also contested at Santa Pod.
In 1984 Sammy recorded a pass of 3.58 at Santa Pod Raceway which still stands as the absolute ET record anywhere on the planet.
Chris
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L.W.( Ãill ) Hughes III
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L.W.( Ãill ) Hughes III
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HAHAHA Bill, I was saying that the TF cars are faster!!!! I think you need to read a little better! FFS!
Chris
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L.W.( Ãill ) Hughes III
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L.W.( Ãill ) Hughes III
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