OT Top Fuel Dragsters

I read this on another newsgroup and thought it was worth sharing:

Top Fuel Dragster:

- Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have completed reading this sentence.

- 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 1-1/2 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 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 (stoichiometry: methodology and technology by which quantities of reactants and products in chemical reactions are determined)

1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitromethane the flame front temperature measures 7050 degrees F.

- Nitro methane 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 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 an average of over 4G's. In order to reach 200 mph well before half-track, the launch acceleration approaches 8G's.

- Top Fuel Engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light!

- Including the burnout the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load.

- 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).

- 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.

Putting all of this into perspective: Let's say that you are driving an average $240,000 NASCAR Winston Cup racecar. 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 stock car 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.

"I can hammer it back into shape later." :wq!

Reply to
Shaggie
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Amazing stuff. That post shows up every so often when someone else sees it for the first time.

I was in line at a local hardware store and happened to lay my adjustable pushrod on the counter. The girl next in line asked what kind of car that pushrod came out of. After I explained what it was for, she told me she knew all about setting up valve train geometry. Since she had once wrenched on a top fuel dragster team. Now, that's my kind of girl! Where was she when I was single?

Max

Reply to
Max Welton

Didn't you get her phone number for us? ;)

Max Welton wrote in this friggin' newsgroup:

Reply to
Ant

"Max Welton" wrote

Well, judging by your description of "girl" .... I'm guessing she was just a gleam in her parents' eyes. ;-)

Reply to
Scott H

This would be the part where I wisely keep my mouth shut...

;-)

Max

Reply to
Max Welton

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