For the petrol heads

Ralph · Posted: Feb 26, 2003 12:33 pm Post subject: For the petrol heads

Top Fuel Dragster Facts
One dragster's 500-inch Hemi makes more horsepower then 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 then 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 stoichiometric (exact) 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture (for nitro), the flame front of nitromethane 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.

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 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.

To exceed 300mph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must accelerate at an average of over 4G's. But in reaching 200 mph well before 1/2 track, launch acceleration is closer to 8G's.

If all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs $1000.00 per second.

Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have read this sentence.

Top Fuel Engines ONLY turn 540 revolutions from light to light! The redline is actually quite high at 9500rpm.

To give you an idea of this acceleration, the current TF dragster elapsed time record is 4.477 seconds for the quarter mile. This means that you could be coming across the starting line in your average Lingenfelter powered "twin-turbo" Corvette at 200 mph (on a FLYING START) and the dragster would BEAT you to the finish line FROM A DEAD STOP in a quarter mile distance!

B-rad · Posted: Feb 26, 2003 12:49 pm Post subject:

Damn, that is some interesting stuff man.

criminally_minded · Posted: Feb 26, 2003 12:58 pm Post subject:

I wonder if thats why they are so loud Wink

Seriously though thats cool......I bet I could beat one in my Honda though Laughing

NAW · Posted: Feb 26, 2003 1:08 pm Post subject:

My adrenaline was pumping the whole time I read that!

Dees · Posted: Feb 26, 2003 2:25 pm Post subject:

I think I wet my pants i was so excited

core-rider · Addict Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 531 City: Huntsville, AL

This is one of the funniest shirts I have ever seen. Kinda goes well with this post...

Dees · Posted: Feb 26, 2003 2:47 pm Post subject:

Jason- Sweet shirt

criminally_minded · Posted: Feb 26, 2003 2:54 pm Post subject:

I have a great shot of my Accord pulling our kicker out to the river. It looks hilarious, because the ramp is white and so is the car, so it looks like a 6ft high homemade wing on the back! Gotta love the rice boys.... There is a civic at work which has just had the full bodykit (not put on straight), alloys, ricey exhaust, 'Honda racing stickers' etc....

I bought my Honda because its comfortable, reliable (except for the damn immobiliser), roomy, it will tow the boat etc. etc, not because I wanted a freaking race car!

nick e[V]ans · Posted: Feb 27, 2003 1:53 am Post subject:

wow thats some awesome sh*t, i have never seen anything close to watching a pair of top fuelers go down the strip flat out. actually i've seen one do a 1/4 mile burnout once.

criminally_minded · Posted: Feb 27, 2003 3:04 pm Post subject:

Ralph: ca you explain something to me.... I have read that dragsters don't use a conventional clutch system to get the power to the ground (makes sense, a regular clutch would just burn straight out under that kind of force), but they have some weird gearing system which puts the car into both forwards and reverse at the same time(?). Is this BS or what? If not, can you explain that to me, and if so, what actually happens?

Cheers....b Very Happy

ohsix · Posted: Feb 27, 2003 3:15 pm Post subject:

i think they use a hydraulic clutch pack muck like heavy equipment. like on a bulldozer you steer with brakes but they are actually a series of clutches that expand to slow down and contract to speed up.
however on top fuel dragsters these clutches are tuned and set off the track to apply as much power as possible without breaking the tires loose. on a good run all the driver must do is get a good reaction time off the line and floor it and keep it in a staight line.the clutch pack does the rest. often times they set the clutch pack to apply too much power to the ground too soon. this is when the dragster lights up the tires during the run. if the pack is set perfectly the tires should be on the verge of breaking the static friction between the pavement and the tire's surface all the way down the track.

Ralph · Posted: Feb 27, 2003 6:31 pm Post subject:

Sorry CM I didn't write the article, I just posted it, I know dick about Top Fuel cars.

w$r az style · Soul Rider Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 384 City: Arizona

thats tight

BIGMAC · Posted: Feb 27, 2003 9:33 pm Post subject:

I watched a special on tv about fuelies and it said they would empty an average vehicles gas tank in 8 seconds.
Sweet info !!!!!!

nick e[V]ans · Posted: Feb 28, 2003 12:56 am Post subject:

its even better to read a second time, CRAZYNESS, i cant believe how much it flexes the cam