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.
|