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. (Doesn?t seem to make sense, but read on.)
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.
ed:Nobody is sure exactly the power they make, there isnt a dyno sturdy enough in the world
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
inchemical 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.
ed: holy shit
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.
ed: These days they are pushing 400 at the end of a run
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
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!
's crash?