Top fuel drag racing facts

[maddog]

One top fuel dragster 500 cubic-inch hemi engin makes more hp (8,000) than the first 2 rows at the Daytona 500, under full throttel a dragster engin consumes 11.2 gal. 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 merely drive the dragsters suppercharger.
With 3000 CFM of air being ramed in by the suppercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into a near solid form before ign,cyclinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock at full throttel.
At the stoichiometric 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitro methane the flame front temp measures 7,050 deg F.
Nitro methane burns yellow, the cool white flame seen above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, dissociated from the atmospheric water vapor by the searing exhaust gases.
Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug, this is the amount of an arc welder in each cyclinder.
conttinued

[maddog]

Spark plugs electrodes are totaly consumed during a pass . after 1/2 way , the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1400 deg the engine can only be shut down by cutting off fuel flow. if spark plug momentarily fails early in run, the unburned nitro builds up in the affected cyclindes and explodes with sufficent force to blow cyclinder heads off the block in pieces or split the block in half.
Dragstsers reach over 300 mph before you have completed reading this sentence.
In order to exceed 300 mph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must eccelerate an average of over 4 Gs. In order to reach 200mph well before half-track, the launch acceleration approaches 8Gs.
The bottom line : assuming all the equipment is paid off, the pit crew worked for free, and once , nothing blows up, each run cost an estimated $1,000.00 per second.

[maddog]

Putting all this into perspective
You are driving the average $140,00 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 flying start. you run the vetts hard up thrugh the gears and blast across the starting line and pass the dragster at 200 and the tree gos green.
The dragster launches and starts after you, you keep on the gas, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums and with in 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 standing start, the dragster had spotted you 200mph and not only caught you, but nearly blasted you off the road.
NOW THAT'S ACCELERATION.

[Stewart G Griffin]

i think nhra and current day drag racing sucks.  It's not about racing anymore, it's about putting on a stupid show with your cute little driver with the sunglasses etc.  More on this later---i don't have the time or energy to get into it right now.

[eventhorizon66]

That's not what it's about to the fans of the sport.  Anything televised will be subject to product placement and ratings gimmicks.

[maddog]

Thats why I didnt mention any names or record holders

[smitty77]

Thanks for that, I learn something new every day such as the plugs being toast after 1/8 mile.

Your acceleration comparisons remind me of a repeat of Top Gear I just saw where they used a Bugatti Veyron in a challenge.  At the end of the segment, Jeremy Clarkson commented that in a head-to-head race against a McLaren F1 (also a very capable supercar), you could let the McLaren get to 130mph (which takes about 10 seconds) before you set off in the Bugatti, and the two will be even with each other at the 200mph mark.  Astounding!