[Nifty]

Pretty cool stuff. The speed and power are hard to wrap your head around.

DEFINITION OF ACCELERATION

One top fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows of stock cars at the Daytona 500.

It takes just 15/100ths of a second for all 6,000+ horsepower of an NHRA Top Fuel dragster engine to reach the rear wheels.

Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1-1/2 gallons 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 drive the dragster's supercharger.

With 3,000 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 (stoichiometry: methodology and technology by which quantities of reactants and products in chemical reactions are determined) 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture of nitro methane, the flame front temperature measures 7,050 deg F.

Nitro methane 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. A fter halfway, the engine is dieseling from compression, plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1,400 deg 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 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 9,500 rpm.

A ssuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimate $1,000.00 per second.

The current top fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.428 seconds for the quarter mile (11/12/06, Tony Schumacher, at Pomona, CA). The top speed record is 336.15 mph as measured over the last 66' of the run (05/25/05 Tony Schumacher, at Hebron , OH ).

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 pass 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 1,320 foot long race course.

...... and that my friend, is ACCELERATION!

[Year's_End]

good post

[Bakeme521]

haha that shit is awesome, The only one I knew of was the last one, which is intense. Takes very large marbles to be pilot one of those bad boys.

[MisterSkiMask]

yup, those thing are impressive, the stats are just insane.

[ibeclueless]

[michaelthepsycho]

Definition of pointless, excessive waste of perfectly good resources that could be put towards other forms of actual racing.

[Sniz]

Originally Posted by michaelthepsycho

Definition of pointless, excessive waste of perfectly good resources that could be put towards other forms of actual racing.

i'll have to disagree, these are fastest accelerating cars in the world, hell possibly the fastest accelerating vehicles in the world from.....certainly from a standstill.

its some crazy ass shit......but certainly not pointless.

[MisterSkiMask]

Originally Posted by michaelthepsycho

Definition of pointless, excessive waste of perfectly good resources that could be put towards other forms of actual racing.

Drag racing has been responsible for lots of advancement in automotive performance.

[anthony @ eas]

Fantastic post. I love info like this.

To get a visual idea of the acceleration, this unique video perspective really does the job. Keep in mind that this isn't even a top fuel car.

EDIT: Launch happens around 1:50

[Nifty]

^^^ Everything gets so small so fast...

[footie]

Incredible post, thanks.

As someone not into drag racing I always assumed it to be all about big engines and not much finesse but how wrong was I.

[Silver-Bolt]

I wish they would let the top fuel run the full 1/4 mile again.

[JIM E92]

Chuck Norris is faster.

No, cool post.

[06E90Rostik]

3 "racing" categories I would never understand: tractor pulls, NASCAR and dragsters

[ragingclue]

That's just absolutely mind-numbing. Those cars perform insane feats.

[Heinzftw]

Originally Posted by 06E90Rostik

3 "racing" categories I would never understand: tractor pulls, NASCAR and dragsters

I love watching Tractor Pulls... Its alot funner in person to be honest, but everyone has their preference. I'd rather watch F1 racing, but tractor pulls are pure feats!! Do you know how much torque is cummin from those diesels?

[Rudeman]

I wasn't a fan either, until I saw it live. Guys, they're still cars, and they are carefully tuned to accelerate as hard possible, by passionate owners that love them. Anybody into cars would enjoy walking the pits, seeing the craftsmanship that puts these things together, and watching (and hearing) these beasts rip through the quarter. I'm a road course guy all the way, but there's no denying that drag racing is a spectacle to behold.

[AMPowerJ]

Originally Posted by 06E90Rostik

3 "racing" categories I would never understand: tractor pulls, NASCAR and dragsters

If you are a car guy I would think you could appreciate any form of motorsport. Anything with an engine is ok in my book.

[MikeyV]

Originally Posted by Silver-Bolt

I wish they would let the top fuel run the full 1/4 mile again.

I thought some tracks still ran the full 1/4 mile if they have sufficient runoff, only tracks with shorter runoff run 1000ft.

[c0nstant]

Originally Posted by michaelthepsycho

Definition of pointless, excessive waste of perfectly good resources that could be put towards other forms of actual racing.

perfect example of a shitty opinion