From a email: One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more*horsepower*than the first 4 rows*at the Daytona 500. 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 supercharger. With 3000 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)*17:1 air/fuel mixture for nitro methane the flame front temperature measures*7050 degrees 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 A1/2*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 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 9500rpm. The Bottom Line; Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew*worked*for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated*$1,000.00 per second. The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.428 seconds*for the quarter mile and speed record of 333.91 MPH (Doug Kalitta) Putting all of this into perspective: You are driving the average*$200,000 Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale. 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 F-car hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line and past 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 1320 foot long race course. That folks, is acceleration
The first Ferrari owner or Ferrari nut will reply with: Yea well....what's the dragster going to do when a turn comes up? Drag racing is for people that can't drive. Anyone can go in a straight line!
My auto teacher read this to us yesterday... Acceleration at that rate will make your eyeballs go flat. You changed it to a car that will not do 200MPH... It was originally the Lingenfelter Z06 Twin Turbo.
Those are some cool stats, but they've been posted here a few times before. They're still awe-inspiring, though.
Yes, I edited out the corvette in favor of where we are,... F-chat... Yeah, the 360CS does 186MPH/300KPH... But, an Enzo isn't going to beat a drag racer either... Not to mention that the 360CS may just INDICATE 200MPH...
I got this in the email a few months ago...I believe the original comparison car was a Callaway Vette...
Top Fuel referrs to the top class of dragsters. They are the fastest, quickest class of drag racing. Other classes are Pro Stock, Funny Car (which basically a top fuel dragster in a car like body), and Super Stock. There are more, but you get the idea. Top Fuel is the top dawgs.
Nitromethane(nitro) for fuel + blower, helps with the power. Remember seeing Garlits and Ivo at Islip speedway on Long Island in mid to late 60s. SUnDayyyy, SUNDayyyyy, SUNDayyyy . . . they still do the same comercial for drag racing LOL.
So does "top fuel" signify that the fuel is 100% nitromethane (hence "top")? This must mean that the other classes use less nitro in their fuel, right?
Another interesting tidbit. The actual horsepower that a Top Fuel drag engine puts out at full throttle is not known. It can only be extrapolated from acceleration numbers. There is no dyno which could handle the hp of the motor (the engine would never last anyway). Estimates are more than 9000 hp at full throttle and rpm.
It's not 100% nitro, but this is what "Top Fuel" category of funny cars and dragsters use. There are also Alcohol car classes, high octane gas and I'm sure others. Top Fuel is the "big dawg" of drag racing.
I think it would be awesome to watch the heads blow off an engine block... Ford SVT lightnings were throwing the spark plugs out of the cylinder heads.
So how can a team establish whether they have made an improvement when they make a change to the motor? Normally, if you are tuning a car, you would do it on the dyno, but if you can't, I guess you must gauge your changes based on trap speed or E.T. ??? I bet it takes a substantial horsepower increase to go even a tenth faster when you're running 4's, though.
fwiw, I was poking around the net and found out that top-fuel dragsters run on a 90% nitro, 10% methanol mixture. There must be some reason why the nitro content can't be increased...
They used to run 100%, but the guys who right the rules decided the cars were going to fast. I don' think they are running 4.4s @330s any more, I believe they are wqay down to 4.5s @ 320s.
Actually, unless my math is wrong, the Ferrari (or whatever) doing 200 MPH will run the quarter in 4.5045 seconds. So the dragster would have to run in record time (the quoted 4.428) to beat it narrowly. And the dragster wouldn't pass the Ferrari in 3 seconds; it would "only" exceed its speed at that point, and pass it just before the end of the run. That being said, it's still pretty awesome!
