Some interesting facts about top fuel dragsters...
 

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.

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

"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

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

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

Some very interesting facts. Thnx :D

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

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:

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.

Interesting...

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?

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

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.

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.

bahahhahahaha

thats beyond nasty...