Interesting Facts

[Zero]

People..

Top Fuel Dragster
An automotive perspective...

* 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 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 1/2 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 red-line is actually quite high at 9500 rpm.

* 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).

That, folks, is acceleration

Ami tawata tey.....

[PapaSnap]

Hehehe hopi bon Drift...nice job!Bon research man.
Awor mi sa pa ki bo no kier e dsm mas,bo kier bay all out cu un dragster awor no, conjo!!

[GinoX]

There are a couple more things:

- Zero to sixty mph in less than half a second, depending on clutch tuning, track condition etc

- These cars are usually idling at around 1500~2000 rpm, at which time the supercharger is already boosting 2~5 psi; all this depending on the motor's state of tune, depending again at which track they are, barometric pressure readings etc.

- Initial and total ignition advance are more than double the values of a stock production car. Total ignition advance usually exceeds 70 degree BTDC in contrast to 30~36 degree in road cars

- Those 8 ft long flames also contain fuel, still burning in the (searing hot) headers on their way out

- Not that this will matter, but the pilot (can't call him driver) takes only one breath and doesn't wink at all _during_ the run

[PietjeZz]

Damn! impressive,wish i had an engine like that in my car! hehe!
Pero a few questions.......Kiko ta e average weight di un topfuel dragster!
Anto nan ta jega 300+mph,pero den 1/4mile,nan por sigi coi mas speed,y core mas alew cu un 1/4mile...dus keep on going a little more?

[RiveN]

sure they can.... if they wanted to fly :)

[GinoX]

Bo ta pret si Riven

Ehmmm... Piet, mi no sa si bo e yega di wak Thills and Spills of algo asinei na televishon. Unda cu tin un parachute faillure anto e vehiculo ta sigi door asina mes cu brake wanta pa full e mile di shut down area, pasa door di e barrier nets, door di sand trap, anto ainda dal cura di e facility basha bou, cruza caminda grandi pa porfin klaba den e was hokje di un kas.


Esei ta an out-of-control 300mph.

Hehheehehehehe ainda asina mes e donjo di cas a pidi un signature di e driver.

[PapaSnap]

Whoa!! se se ma jega di wak algo asina hehehe.....Thrills and speed segunmi. Mal conjo

[RiveN]

i didnt see that
got video ?!

[PietjeZz]

Hmmmm.....seh mi a jega di wak jen di e video series nan ey,"crash&burn" anto e mas notorious series "....and they walked away" min sa si boso sa di esun ey?
Esun cu bo ta papia di dje ey GinoX si mi no a wak,esey lo ta priceless!
Un cu ma wak si ta e monstertruck Snakebite perde control crash benta un cas abou!
Pero cua a keda graba den mi cabes,anto Riven you right boy nan ta fly,ta e dragster di Don Garlits casi na final hop bai falto y flip over high in the air!

Pero on a serious note,nan ta coi 300+ on a quarter mile,mi sa cu overheating por ta un factor,pero nunka nan a hiba un engine asina to the limit? dus mas cu e 1/4mile, dus e por coi 400+mph or not?

[GinoX]

Originally posted by PietjeDeDood!
dus mas cu e 1/4mile, dus e por coi 400+mph or not?

Si, me ke sa na Mojave Desert na Merka bms Bonneville races style. In the nebbahoed di 700 mph den un digger. Pero nan a baha e percentage di nitro subiendo e percentage di alcohol. Manera 70/30 0f 65/35 nitro/alky. Sino bo ta haya thermal meltdown at the mildest of gewoon un fukking explosion grandi at the worst.

Minsa si bo sa Piet pero nitro ta un combustible hopi volatile paso un di su ingredientnan ta O2 mes mes. Not to be confused with (the unstable) nitroglycerine.

[RiveN]

Scientist in tha houze