Interestng read

[Rossbx]

Hey all, the following was sent to me via email some time ago now but it is still a very interesting read.

Enjoy!

You don t have to be a drag racing fan to appreciate these statistics.
Some Interesting 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 ½ gallons of nitro per second, the
same rate of fuel consumption as a fully loaded 747, but with 4 times the energy
density.
The supercharger takes more power to drive then a stock hemi makes.
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 nitro
methane measures 7050 degrees F.
Nitro methane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the exhaust
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 ½ 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 off its 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 crank)
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 ½ 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 turns 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!

[southy]

Thats some pretty crazy Sh!t.

[PaulSV6]

Now that is very Interesting

[nemesis_adrasteia]

i sure i saw this years ago, still interesting read tho

[old mate]

hmm, those engines sure are powerful

[shiftySLE]

Yeah, love the top fuellers, cant beat that roar that rattles every bone in your body, full credit also to racers in the classes below them all the way to the pro street.

[Holdfast]

Rossbx, thanks for that very informative post. That's some awesome comparrisons

[Trayner]

some good info

[thedeadwalk]

nothing beats being there and feeling your ass hairs vibrate across the seat

[Rossbx]

Rossbx, thanks for that very informative post. That's some awesome comparrisons

Yeah cool man, no worries