Interesting read
November 13th, 2011, 06:25 AM
#1
Registered User
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Rathdrum, Idano
Posts: 9,127
Interesting read
> The Definition of Acceleration
>
> Read this thru slowly and try to comprehend the amount of force produced in
> just under 4 seconds!
>
> There are no rockets or airplanes built by any government in the world that
> can accelerate from a standing start as fast as a Top Fuel Dragster or Funny
> Car!
>
> 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.
>
> 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 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!
>
> Read this thru slowly and try to comprehend the amount of force produced in
> just under 4 seconds!
>
> There are no rockets or airplanes built by any government in the world that
> can accelerate from a standing start as fast as a Top Fuel Dragster or Funny
> Car!
>
> 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.
>
> 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 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!
November 13th, 2011, 08:29 AM
#4
Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Central IN
Posts: 1,226
These machines are astounding...
If you've never been to an NHRA event, you really should go.... Here's a post I made on another board ~ 8 yrs ago....
___________________________
09-02-2003 at 08:58 PM
12,000 Horsepower...IN STEREO !
Thought I'd share an experience I had last weekend at the U.S.Nationals Drag Races at Indianapolis Raceway Park.
I've been to several in the past and have sat pretty close in the stands, I've also been in the staging area with friends running street-stock racers in the past. But on Saturday I had the priviledge of standing between the Top Fuel and Funny Cars at the starting boxes during a launch. We were allowed to stand in the 'blue strip' for the burnouts and qual runs.
If you look thru the rear wing uprights, that's me in the gray T-shirt holding a camera.
MitchKing.jpg
This is the pic I was taking..
LaunchSM.jpg
The only pic. I gave up after the first run.
All I can say is OMG !!
There are no words that can acurately describe the sensation when they launch. Even idling, each cylinder firing is like someone thumping you in the chest. But when they pull the trigger on one of these...look out.
Some notes from the occasion;
- The power is so great that is can be seismically recorded. I can attest to this. When they launch, and you're this close, your vision blurs momentarily.
- Hearing protection is a must anywhere with 100 feet of these cars when they're running. But even the best hearing protection won't stop your skull from rattling at launch.
- It apparently takes a lot (gals?) of fuel to prime these engines for starting. So much that when they do, a wave of raw fuel erupts about 15 feet from the pipes. I was standing in a group behind and to the side of Scott Kalitta's (the Jesse James car) when it was started. The wave shot out, I saw it, turned and ducked, but the guy next to me didn't see it coming and caught it in the face. He was clutching his face/eyes and howling like he'd been hit with 'Alien' acid. Nitro is nasty stuff.
- The guy running the promotion that I was in was a sadist. He kept pushing me closer to the right rear tire prior to launch. I know what's about to happen and I don't want to be that close. By about the 8-10 foot mark I was almost fighting him. I turned to look at him and he was laughing.
- Met some famous people. Connie Kalitta chatted with our group. Also met Tony Schumacher , Darell Gwynn, and Scott Kalitta and some other racers I forget. They were very cool asking us what we thought ,etc.. Jesse James was there with his traveling bike show and was working with the Kalittas on the car. Jim Kelly (ex Bills QB) was standing next to me during the burnout for the car above. He stayed in the blue strip for several runs.
Kelly is the one in a white T-shirt and hat standing on the 2nd 'O' on Tools in this pic. He's pretty cool and jabbered with us between runs. It was kind of funny to see him acting professional prior to a launch, but grinning like kid afterwards.
- Everybody that is not used to this walks toward the staging area with this look like they're headed to 'the chair'. But after the run, they all are grinning/giggling like kids.
- Drawbacks include burning eyes/throat from fumes. Also, you won't be able to get the 'Braaaahhhhnnnnooooowwww' sound out of your head for about 24 hours. And, once you've done this, nothing else will do. Almost ever other kind of engine will seem weak and uninteresting for a while.
Sooo, if you ever have the ways/means to something like this, YOU MUST ! Even if you can't get that close, I highly recommend attending at least one Nitro class Drag Series in your life time. The Nat's were washed out last weekend. They're gonna run them Sept 5-7. Plenty of good seats are available !
________________
If you've never been to an NHRA event, you really should go.... Here's a post I made on another board ~ 8 yrs ago....
___________________________
09-02-2003 at 08:58 PM
12,000 Horsepower...IN STEREO !
Thought I'd share an experience I had last weekend at the U.S.Nationals Drag Races at Indianapolis Raceway Park.
I've been to several in the past and have sat pretty close in the stands, I've also been in the staging area with friends running street-stock racers in the past. But on Saturday I had the priviledge of standing between the Top Fuel and Funny Cars at the starting boxes during a launch. We were allowed to stand in the 'blue strip' for the burnouts and qual runs.
If you look thru the rear wing uprights, that's me in the gray T-shirt holding a camera.
MitchKing.jpg
This is the pic I was taking..
LaunchSM.jpg
The only pic. I gave up after the first run.
All I can say is OMG !!
There are no words that can acurately describe the sensation when they launch. Even idling, each cylinder firing is like someone thumping you in the chest. But when they pull the trigger on one of these...look out.
Some notes from the occasion;
- The power is so great that is can be seismically recorded. I can attest to this. When they launch, and you're this close, your vision blurs momentarily.
- Hearing protection is a must anywhere with 100 feet of these cars when they're running. But even the best hearing protection won't stop your skull from rattling at launch.
- It apparently takes a lot (gals?) of fuel to prime these engines for starting. So much that when they do, a wave of raw fuel erupts about 15 feet from the pipes. I was standing in a group behind and to the side of Scott Kalitta's (the Jesse James car) when it was started. The wave shot out, I saw it, turned and ducked, but the guy next to me didn't see it coming and caught it in the face. He was clutching his face/eyes and howling like he'd been hit with 'Alien' acid. Nitro is nasty stuff.
- The guy running the promotion that I was in was a sadist. He kept pushing me closer to the right rear tire prior to launch. I know what's about to happen and I don't want to be that close. By about the 8-10 foot mark I was almost fighting him. I turned to look at him and he was laughing.
- Met some famous people. Connie Kalitta chatted with our group. Also met Tony Schumacher , Darell Gwynn, and Scott Kalitta and some other racers I forget. They were very cool asking us what we thought ,etc.. Jesse James was there with his traveling bike show and was working with the Kalittas on the car. Jim Kelly (ex Bills QB) was standing next to me during the burnout for the car above. He stayed in the blue strip for several runs.
Kelly is the one in a white T-shirt and hat standing on the 2nd 'O' on Tools in this pic. He's pretty cool and jabbered with us between runs. It was kind of funny to see him acting professional prior to a launch, but grinning like kid afterwards.
- Everybody that is not used to this walks toward the staging area with this look like they're headed to 'the chair'. But after the run, they all are grinning/giggling like kids.
- Drawbacks include burning eyes/throat from fumes. Also, you won't be able to get the 'Braaaahhhhnnnnooooowwww' sound out of your head for about 24 hours. And, once you've done this, nothing else will do. Almost ever other kind of engine will seem weak and uninteresting for a while.
Sooo, if you ever have the ways/means to something like this, YOU MUST ! Even if you can't get that close, I highly recommend attending at least one Nitro class Drag Series in your life time. The Nat's were washed out last weekend. They're gonna run them Sept 5-7. Plenty of good seats are available !
________________
November 13th, 2011, 08:36 AM
#5
'87 Delta 88 Royale
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Margate, England
Posts: 2,513
About the same total amount of power the average spectator might use to take their car to the event and drive home again.......
I used to enjoy watching top fuel racing in the UK - we have two full time dragstrips, only trouble is I went to Texas motorplex and saw how it was done properly. kind of spoilt it for me back home.
What I watched on the Friday practice day would have all the race fans back here going home with their heads blown away if it had been stretched over a complete event in the UK.
I went to a meeting in Perth, Western Australia in 2008, It's about at the same level as the UK as far as speeds, times and number of cars taking part is concerned.
Still I can brag that I've seen top fuel racing in three continents.
Roger.
I used to enjoy watching top fuel racing in the UK - we have two full time dragstrips, only trouble is I went to Texas motorplex and saw how it was done properly. kind of spoilt it for me back home.
What I watched on the Friday practice day would have all the race fans back here going home with their heads blown away if it had been stretched over a complete event in the UK.
I went to a meeting in Perth, Western Australia in 2008, It's about at the same level as the UK as far as speeds, times and number of cars taking part is concerned.
Still I can brag that I've seen top fuel racing in three continents.
Roger.
Last edited by rustyroger; November 13th, 2011 at 12:52 PM.
November 13th, 2011, 09:20 AM
#7
Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Shorewood, Il.
Posts: 3,057
Good read - and explaines why the fuel cars "only" run to 1000 feet now!
Still going over 300 MPH, and UNDER 4 SECONDS!!!
I was lucky enough to be able to 'sneak in' the Joliet track, [66] when they had 2 meets a year, usually on friday nights, and stayed on the 'big end'!
Watching the flames outa the gates, with no thunder 'til they were on top of you, and then you couldn't even tell who they were @ 300 MPH - your eyes couldn't catch-up - was the rush of a lifetime!!
Then security started patrolling the area on horseback - bummer!
Still going over 300 MPH, and UNDER 4 SECONDS!!!
I was lucky enough to be able to 'sneak in' the Joliet track, [66] when they had 2 meets a year, usually on friday nights, and stayed on the 'big end'!
Watching the flames outa the gates, with no thunder 'til they were on top of you, and then you couldn't even tell who they were @ 300 MPH - your eyes couldn't catch-up - was the rush of a lifetime!!
Then security started patrolling the area on horseback - bummer!
November 14th, 2011, 03:11 PM
#8
Old(s) Fart
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Northern VA
Posts: 47,669
Yeah, TF cars are impressive, but this statement is not true:
As an example, for eight years I was the Program Manager for the development and launch of the Taurus Launch Vehicle at Orbital Sciences Corp. This rocket weighs 190,000 lbs. It covers the quarter mile from a standing start in just over 4 seconds...
STRAIGHT UP!!!
Try that in a TF car when you've got gravity pulling against you. Oh, and the Taurus went zero to Mach 1 in about 11 seconds. We even had a small write-up about the rocket in the Dec 1994 issue of Car and Driver.
Oh, and ballistic missile interceptor rockets blow this performance away.
By the way, does anyone remember the Don Garlits race against an F-14 (on a catapult)?
STRAIGHT UP!!!
Try that in a TF car when you've got gravity pulling against you. Oh, and the Taurus went zero to Mach 1 in about 11 seconds. We even had a small write-up about the rocket in the Dec 1994 issue of Car and Driver.
Oh, and ballistic missile interceptor rockets blow this performance away.
By the way, does anyone remember the Don Garlits race against an F-14 (on a catapult)?
November 15th, 2011, 11:36 AM
#11
Just an Olds Guy
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Edmonton, AB. And "I am Can 'eh' jun - eh"
Posts: 24,525
Pat, nice read. But...the vette has room for your special someone and a bag of luggage + it won't run out of gas at the end of that 1320 feet! Getting there at 200mph is fast enough (too fast in fact) for me.
November 15th, 2011, 12:56 PM
#13
November 15th, 2011, 02:19 PM
#14
1974 DELTA 88
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Yavapai County, Arizona
Posts: 569
Those are some good points, but the acceleration is still very impressive. 200mph is way more than fast enough for me too.
November 16th, 2011, 09:03 PM
#16
Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Orange County, CA
Posts: 214
Funny you've mentioned gravity... Though not the same I saw on Modern Marvels a few years back that a top fuel dragster has enough down force on its wing that it could be driven upside down on a ceiling!
November 17th, 2011, 05:18 AM
#17
Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Central IN
Posts: 1,226
November 17th, 2011, 06:07 AM
#18
'87 Delta 88 Royale
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Margate, England
Posts: 2,513
more bragging.
I watched the late "Slammin" Sammy millers rocket car do its 3.583/386.26 pass at Santa Pod Raceway, UK in 1983.
.
I understand this time has never been beaten, but it isn't a record as he didn't back it up.
Roger.
.I understand this time has never been beaten, but it isn't a record as he didn't back it up.
Roger.
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