Acceleration Put Into Perspective
Apr 20, 2004 | 04:22 PM
#1
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Range Rover
Joined: Nov 2003
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Acceleration Put Into Perspective
Not sure the source of this info. I found it lying on a table at work. Pretty long post but interesting nonetheless.
- One Top Fuel dragster 500 ci Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500.
- Under full throttle, a dragster consumes 11.2 gallons of nitromethane 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 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitromethane, the flame front temp measures 7050 degrees F.
- Nitromethane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen dissociated from atmospheris 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 half 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 the 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 4 G's. In order to reach 200 mph well before half-track, the launch acceleration approaches 8 G's.
- Dragsters reach over 300 mph 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 per second.
The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.441 seconds for the quarter mile (10/05/03, Tony Schumacher). The top speed record is 330.00 mph as measured over the last 66' of the run (09/28/03 Doug Kalitta).
Now for the perspective (this is good): 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 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 of a mile away from where you just passed him. Think about it. From a standing start, the dragster had spotted you going 200 mph and, not only caught, but nearly blasted you off of the road when he passed you within a mere 1320 foot long race track!
- One Top Fuel dragster 500 ci Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500.
- Under full throttle, a dragster consumes 11.2 gallons of nitromethane 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 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitromethane, the flame front temp measures 7050 degrees F.
- Nitromethane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen dissociated from atmospheris 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 half 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 the 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 4 G's. In order to reach 200 mph well before half-track, the launch acceleration approaches 8 G's.
- Dragsters reach over 300 mph 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 per second.
The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.441 seconds for the quarter mile (10/05/03, Tony Schumacher). The top speed record is 330.00 mph as measured over the last 66' of the run (09/28/03 Doug Kalitta).
Now for the perspective (this is good): 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 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 of a mile away from where you just passed him. Think about it. From a standing start, the dragster had spotted you going 200 mph and, not only caught, but nearly blasted you off of the road when he passed you within a mere 1320 foot long race track!
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Apr 21, 2004 | 05:23 PM
#9
Pro Rider
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 619
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Acceleration Put Into Perspective
hp on a top fuel is around 6000. i had the chance to talk to eddie hill once and asked how long a set of tires last. a normal car gets around 40,000 out of a set of tires( not me ) but a top fuel dragster is lucky to get one mile or four passes, doesn't happen that often. instead of miles per gallon they get gallons per mile. eddie gave me one of the plugs out of his car and it looks like someone ran it for about 200,000 miles, not much left of it. if anyon hasn't been to a national event you need to go. i promise you will be hooked. when the dragster leaves the line your vission is blurd and your clothes vibrate from the engines noise. after the pass if you still have your hearing you can hear car alarms going off a half mile away. the best part is in the pits. the crew starts the car up on the stands and lets it idle. this draws everyone one in close. after it has idled for a few minutes they switch it over to nitro and the crowd sactters. the brave ones that stay end up with tears running down their face from the raw nitro fumes, it's great. i would love to run one of those but my wallet says stay in the supergass class.
Apr 21, 2004 | 05:49 PM
#10
Pro Rider
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 436
Likes: 0
Acceleration Put Into Perspective
that it takes just 15/100ths of a second for all 8,000 horsepower of an NHRA Top Fuel dragster engine to reach the rear wheels? so i was 2000 over with my first estimate. i got this off a topfuel drag site. just type in top fuel horsepower and find it. but i have seen some with more hp though.