Acceleration

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* 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 1½ gallons of nitromethane 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 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitromethane 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 vapour 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 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 redline is actually quite high at 9500rpm.
* 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 US$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 driving the average $140,000 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 a flying start. You run the 'Vette 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.

That, folks, is acceleration.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae

8,000 horsepower can definitely giddy-up!

Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Also note that pretty much the entire drive train (including engine) have to be rebuilt after every run. I've seen a clutch assembly after a run and it is not purty.

Master of Prissface

Oh, where's JJ? He loves car talk.....

Adjunct

okay if you say so...8000 hp Shocked

that is a lot of horses

Pyromaniac

A stock Dodge hemi V8 doesn't make enough horsepower to turn the supercharger..... that puts it into perspective right there for me. Nice post with mucho dude points associated with it.

Bounty Hunter

At the Frederick MD Airshow each year, there is a drag race between a twin jet engine powered drag truck and a WWII Fighter Plane using the Corvette method above..the drag truck wins every time.

Now lets talk weight to HP ratio's. My son is an avid VW Dragster engine builder...using of course, the old 4 banger VW beetle engines. The car he is building for himself with the Xbrother-in-law, has a special drag trans-axle, a fiberglass body, and *drum roll* a 340 HP engine...not counting the N02... Now remember that a stock old style VW Beetle engine has about 40-60 HP. It is truly an engineering feat as to what those two can get out of a 1960's vintage Bug engine Twisted Evil

He has also been warned not to take it into Radnor Township....unless he wants to donate it to the Po Po as an unmarked Interceptor Razz

crazy cat lady

I'm sorry, what did you say? My eyes rolled back into my head somewhere along the first line of this thread...too. much. testosterone. Mr. Green

Adjunct

Bounty Hunter

Adjunct

I hear you G....our cars do not have a lot of get up and go...The Twp did not buy new vehicles this year and most of them have over 100k on them and are feeling their age...We are due for 4 new cars next year...Tell him to wait until then

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Acceleration

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