And you thought your XS was quick...

scotts

'DEFINITION OF ACCELERATION' (courtesy of Performance Techniques):

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. After 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.

Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew is working 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!

nudude53

I need a blower!

The last time I watched them they were in the 3.80's. >>>SMOKIN'!<<<

rhilker

Yeah but do they have a hot babe jerking you off at the same time?

Who said XS650's were fast? You want fast buy a Hyabusa. I doubt the dragster would catch it.

scotts

rhilker wrote:

You want fast buy a Hyabusa. I doubt the dragster would catch it.

You ARE joking, right?

oldskoolcool · Full Member Joined: Sep 08, 2007 Posts: 372

hahaha, Hyabusa as fast as a top fueler......right.

4.428 seconds for the quarter mile in a top fueler.

10.5 to high 9 for a Busa........hmm i wonder

rhilker

I'm just saying at 250 with a flying start?...........

tacoswild

that's an awesome write-up, I was never much of a drag racing fan but I appreciate the technical effort more and more these days.

nudude53

oldskoolcool wrote:

4.428 seconds for the quarter mile in a top fueler.

When was the last time you watched top fuel? We're talking 3.80's now, I never thought I'd ever see that. I figured I'd seen it all when they broke into the fours.

Don Garlits in his NEW rear engine rail, West Palm Beach, Florida, March 1971.....6.26 secs @ 224 mph. Man oh man, we thought that was a moon launch! ...........the door slammers are doing that now.

danno · Full Member Joined: Mar 04, 2006 Posts: 212

Really puts things in perspective. My 1999 S-10 pickup will do zero to sixty in just three tries...

rhilker

Drag racers are a different breed.
I couldn`t do it. No stop gap, if it goes bad at that speed your toast. Every major racer has at least one. Id sooner race formular 1.

scotts

I wish I could take credit for this, but here's a funny reply to the top fuel thread from another forum:

y Choppa makes approximately the same horsepower as the first four lawnmowers in front of Lowe's. The push mowers.

On a good day it can take about 15 minutes to get any of that horsepower to the rear wheel, provided my foot doesnt fall off from kick starting.

At full throttle my Choppa couldnt pull open the gas door on a Dodge Hemi.

At normal atmospheric pressure some of the fuel in the cylinders is burned.

Cylinders run on the verge of complete mechanical failure at any throttle setting.

Bic lighters have hotter flame fronts than the ignition in my Choppa.

The Choppa has been accused of burning Nitro because of the smell of raw burning disassociated hydrogen. Actually its raw ass-ociated burritos. And yes it does feel like 7000 degrees!

Dual coils supply each cylinder with spark juice, roughly enough to weld with - provided you can figure out a way to weld with a couple of hearing aid batteries.

Spark plugs are consumed regularly, and you can shut the engine down just by stopping in front of anyone you want to impress.

If it quits running early on a ride, I some times explode with sufficient verbal force to split cases and crack cylinder heads at 100'. The first time this happened I split a CBX neatly in two and a nearby Yamaha engineer was seen jotting in a note book.

In order to accelerate, you would feel some G's. Forget it.

I have probably completed 300 repairs on it before you finish reading this sentence.

I'd be happy if the engine survived a revolution under load.

The redline is unknown since I havent been able to exceed about 75rpm with the kicker.

Assume nothing. Choppers are expensive.

The current eta was written on a calander but we forgot to turn the page and write down the finish so its not that accurate anyway.

To put this into perspective, put on your fish eye glasses, funny gag teeth and specially reinforced racing thong and go wfo!

Blacktooth_Grin · Full Member Joined: Apr 01, 2009 Posts: 29

nudude53 wrote:

oldskoolcool wrote:

4.428 seconds for the quarter mile in a top fueler.

When was the last time you watched top fuel? We're talking 3.80's now, I never thought I'd ever see that. I figured I'd seen it all when they broke into the fours.

Don Garlits in his NEW rear engine rail, West Palm Beach, Florida, March 1971.....6.26 secs @ 224 mph. Man oh man, we thought that was a moon launch! ...........the door slammers are doing that now.

The 3.80 times are only 1000 ft runs. The fuel classes have only been running to 1000 ft as a safety measure since Scott Kalitta's death at Englishtown last year.

Shumacher's 4.42 is still the quarter mile record.

nudude53

BG:
y bad, I was unaware of that fact, and after watching the videos of Scott's crash I can understand why. What I don't understand though is why NHRA hasn't done something to lengthen the run offs on the old tracks. They started talking about that years ago when they were thinking about lowering manifold pressures to slow down the fuel cars. I'm aware that in some cases property rights issues at the end of the track come into play. But if the whole idea for over 50 years has been to go as fast as you can as quick as you can in a 1/4 mile then so be it, let it happen. Nascar gets restrictor plates shoved down their throats and they still inch towards the forbidden speed mark only to have the size of the plate squeezed down some more. Now when they wreck at a restrictor plate race everybody gets in on the action. Then they install nice fluffy walls to bounce off of. So where are NHRA's nice fluffy pillows, and how many more lives will it cost to get some?

kingwj

40 years ago Road & Track magazine said they only need 2 rule changes to slow down Formula 1 cars. First was 4" rim width and second was an 18" diameter steering wheel. But today we have 25" rim width and steering wheels that cost more than your house. Result is a race where no one can pass except with pit stops. Progress isn't always a good idea. And don't even get me started on the 'stock' cars of tomorrow. How boring can racing get before you turn it off? Someone needs to sue NASCAR to change their name to uglyass kit cars designed to save money and if they race OK that's a surprise to us. UKCSTSMAITROTASTU

Blacktooth_Grin · Full Member Joined: Apr 01, 2009 Posts: 29

nudude53 wrote:

BG:
y bad, I was unaware of that fact, and after watching the videos of Scott's crash I can understand why. What I don't understand though is why NHRA hasn't done something to lengthen the run offs on the old tracks. They started talking about that years ago when they were thinking about lowering manifold pressures to slow down the fuel cars. I'm aware that in some cases property rights issues at the end of the track come into play. But if the whole idea for over 50 years has been to go as fast as you can as quick as you can in a 1/4 mile then so be it, let it happen. Nascar gets restrictor plates shoved down their throats and they still inch towards the forbidden speed mark only to have the size of the plate squeezed down some more. Now when they wreck at a restrictor plate race everybody gets in on the action. Then they install nice fluffy walls to bounce off of. So where are NHRA's nice fluffy pillows, and how many more lives will it cost to get some?

Some of the tracks have done work to the shut down areas, the Englishtown race was a couple of weeks ago and the announcers kept going on about the improvements.

The NHRA is also working on changing the specs for the fuel cars. They recently tested a combo with a 413 inch motor, less blower overdrive, limiting fuel pump capacity and a higher rear gear ratio.

nudude53

It's starting to smell like NASCAR now.

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