Some interesting facts about top fuel dragsters...

[dis3as3d]

One dragster's 500-inch Hemi makes more horsepower than the first 8 rows at Daytona.

Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1 1/2 gallons of nitro per second, the same rate of fuel consumption as a fully loaded 747 but with 4 times the energy volume.

The supercharger takes more power to drive than a stock Hemi makes.

Even with nearly 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into nearly-solid form before ignition. Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock.

Dual magnetos apply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder.

At the stoichiometric (exact) 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture (for nitro), the flame front of nitromethane measures 7050 degrees F. (It explodes! It doesn't really "burn").

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.

Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After 1/2 way, the engine is dieseling from the heat of compression - plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1400 degrees F. The engine can only be shut down by cutting of it's fuel flow.

If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in those cylinders and then explodes with a force that can blow cylinder heads off the block in pieces or blow the block in half.

Dragsters twist the crank (torsionally) so far (20 degrees in the big end of the track) that sometimes cam lobes are ground offset from front to rear to re-phase the valve timing somewhere closer to synchronization with the pistons.

Launch acceleration is close to 8G's.

If all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once nothing blows up, each run still costs $1000.00 per second.

Top Fuel Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you finish reading this sentence.

[novass]

interesting, learn something new everyday :D

i love drag racing, not many of my friends do, but i love it. i like anything fast. the top fuel cars are incredible. you can feel the horsepower when that thing takes off. 0-300+ in under 5 secs is pretty amazing

[rp]

"Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After 1/2 way, the engine is dieseling from the heat of compression - plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1400 degrees F. The engine can only be shut down by cutting of it's fuel flow.
"

I always liked that :D

[alondahan]

another interesting fact: under full throtle the engine lasts less than 8 sec :wink:

[stracing]

i'm not interested in drag racing either...but what happens in an engine at those extremities is interesting

[Nemisis8u]

Some very interesting facts. Thnx :D

[SFDMALEX]

Cool stuff. But the reliability is worse then on a fiat lolll.

[blah]

Im american so of course im in to Drag Racing, our cars cant turn, but you put us in a straight line your done :lol:

[Kangaroo Boy]

Did you know that the TWIN Screw supercharger pulls around 44psi to 55psi of Postive charge air.Thats enuff to Blow a Fully Worked 2jz GTE apart.

[SilviaS15Cwest]

Interesting...

[deth]

cool, thanx for the info.............hey SilviaS15Cwest is it me or is the wing missing off the sti in your sig? isnt it supposed to have a big ass carbonfirbe deal like it had in evo recently?

[SilviaS15Cwest]

I dunno. They dont even sell this model where im from. So your guess is as good as mine.

[hemi_fan]

hahaha, i wondered where they moved this thread. Thats not all the stuff, must've got cut off... i'll see what got left out and add it.

[hemi_fan]

here we go:

Top fuel engines turn ONLY 540 revolutions from light to light!

The redline is actually quite high at 9500rpm.

The current TF dragster elapsed time record is 4.477 seconds for the quarter mile (06/02/01 Kenny Bernstein)

Putting all of this in perspective:

You are driving an average Lingenfelter powered "twin-turbo" Corvette. (www.lingenfelter.com) 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, but you still run the 'Vette hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line and past the dragster at an honest 200mph.

At this moment, the dragster launches and starts after you. You keep your foot hard down, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums and within seconds the dragster carches and passes you. He beats you to the finish line, a quarter mile away from where you passed him.
That, folks, is acceleration.

Think about it, from a standing start, this phenomenal machine has spotted you 200mph and not only caught, but nearly blasted you off the road when he passed you within a mere 1320 feet.

Now... tell me about the time you spun the wheels and laid rubber on dry concrete.

[heath]

Cool stuff. But the reliability is worse then on a fiat lolll.

bahahhahahaha

thats beyond nasty...

[cho_888]

Top Fuel Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you finish reading this sentence.

I dont know i can read pretty quick :P :P :P

[RC45]

Cool stuff. But the reliability is worse then on a fiat lolll.

bahahhahahaha

thats beyond nasty...

...but pretty much sums up all domestic cars in the USA... ;)

[hemi_fan]

yeah because you see top fuel dragsters on the road all the time in the US :S

[jwar]

I remember getting those facts in a forward awhile back.

Another fact is they go 0-100mph in less that 0.8 seconds.
I wanted to find a 0-60mph statistic but I couldn't find it. I wonder why :)

[jwar]

I remember getting those facts in a forward awhile back.

Another fact is they go 0-100mph in less that 0.8 seconds.
I wanted to find a 0-60mph statistic but I couldn't find it. I wonder why :)

[jwar]

I remember getting those facts in a forward awhile back.

Another fact is they go 0-100mph in less that 0.8 seconds.
I wanted to find a 0-60mph statistic but I couldn't find it. I wonder why :)

[sickx]

The acceleration is brutal--can you imagaine accelerating to 120mph faster than an F-18 that is CATAPULTED (not purely under its own power!)??!!

[gottacatchup]

those engines are nuts, too bad they're incredibly unreliable
if only they could fix that and then drop one into something that turns....

[astonmartinandy]

Yeah those are some pretty interesting statistics! I went to go and the top fuel dragsters at Santa Pod last summer and the speed that those go is insane - not to mention the noise that they make!

Another interesting thing is that when the tyres they are rolling up to the start and look creased and folded is due to the torque from the engine at the start literally twisting the tyres before turning them! That's power..

[zevolv]

Another interesting thing is that when the tyres they are rolling up to the start and look creased and folded is due to the torque from the engine at the start literally twisting the tyres before turning them! That's power..

Actually the tires aren't fully inflated so that the insane amount of heat created by all the friction can expand the air and fill the tires.

[Toronto]

did u know it takes no skill at all to be a drag driver :D

[Gecko5]

Thanks for the info.

[zr2man99]

did u know it takes no skill at all to be a drag driver :D


It takes plenty of skill not to shit your pants when you hit the loud pedal on a 6,000hp missle.

[deth]

Actually the tires aren't fully inflated so that the insane amount of heat created by all the friction can expand the air and fill the tires.
i agree that the friction would partially inflate the tire, but i thought it was mainly due to teh centripital force generated by the rotating tire...hence the tire getting taller and thinner.

[jpatino03]

It also probably takes quite a bit of skill to launch something with 3000+ horsepower without spinning the tires and to keep these things going in a straight line while under 8 G's of acceleration. Plus having a name like "John Force" is pretty cool.

[mhn3773]

the air in the tires does not expand enough to "fill" the tire..they are run totaly different tires then on a normal car and are meant to run with extremly low psi for a big foot print on lauch but they expand and get taller for a different gear ratio..something like that not a precise quote but it is close

[frodefe]

I would have to admit that dragracing is not my favorite car activity
top fuel and all that is way to extreme - they don't look like cars any more

- but sometimes it's fun to see hoe far one can push the limits..

Here's a link I found - containing dragracing:http://forum.vwsport.com/dload.php

[gottacatchup]

i agree that the friction would partially inflate the tire, but i thought it was mainly due to teh centripital force generated by the rotating tire...hence the tire getting taller and thinner.

bingo

[DinoGuan]

hmm, drag is ok, just seems like there is soo much more involved in track racing, just rubs me in the right way :mrgreen:

[RockerII]

This guy's got them beat

"Autographed postcard picturing a solid-fuel rocket-powered sled labeled "Sonic Wind No. 1" - describes it as "used to expose human volunteer Stapp to 632 miles per hour attained in five seconds and to deceleration of 40 times gravity in 1.4 seconds, stopping in 690 feet on Holloman Air Force Base test track" Dec. 10, 1954. " 8) :shock:

http://www.floridatoday.com/space/explore/stories/1999b/111899k.htm

[porsche94]

kinda old ive seen those facts months ago

[Garretts_turbo]

i am in awe......i cant even imagine what it feels like to accelerate that fast. must be a incredible push. do the drivers wear vest (like the ones wore in kart racing) that help against the Gs?

[scumhookleo]

here we go:

Top fuel engines turn ONLY 540 revolutions from light to light!

The redline is actually quite high at 9500rpm.

The current TF dragster elapsed time record is 4.477 seconds for the quarter mile (06/02/01 Kenny Bernstein)

Putting all of this in perspective:

You are driving an average Lingenfelter powered "twin-turbo" Corvette. (www.lingenfelter.com) 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, but you still run the 'Vette hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line and past the dragster at an honest 200mph.

At this moment, the dragster launches and starts after you. You keep your foot hard down, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums and within seconds the dragster carches and passes you. He beats you to the finish line, a quarter mile away from where you passed him.
That, folks, is acceleration.

Think about it, from a standing start, this phenomenal machine has spotted you 200mph and not only caught, but nearly blasted you off the road when he passed you within a mere 1320 feet.

Now... tell me about the time you spun the wheels and laid rubber on dry concrete.

And then there was a nasty little 30 degree corner...

heh heh hee.

Mind you, a corner at 200mph in a vette's not going to be a walk in the park either. At least the rail's got at chute.


By the way, that was a really nice description of a top fueler in action. I haven't been to the drags for a few years, but I still miss having my internal organs rattled around when those bastards fire up.

[Ferrarikid]

nice i have a rc nitromethane truck it runs on 20 % nitro and has 2.5 hp it goes bout 45 mph :D

[Skaala]

interesting reading...

[Skaala]

interesting reading...

[gogo4ever]

Cool facts. Thanx dis3as3d

[Boltz]

Id like to add to that list that some drivers have to undergo surgery, because when the parachute hits their eyes fall out of the sockets. No joke.

[nurbrun]

WOW thnx man, i learned MORE than one thing today. I apreciate it :wink:

[sau_mathur]

Thats incredible..! Thanks for all the facts

[Skyliner]

That is some wild facts.... Imagine if Ferrari put their budget from formula 1 into this kind of racing!!! Then there will be some record-breaking in the next couple of years.....

But if you think about it. They don't even have a higher efficiency than the F1-cars had in the mid 80', where a turbocharged 1.5 liter engine produced between 1200-1500 bhp when they were driving kval. And they lasted over three minutes. See thats impressive!