Top Fuel dragster facts

[Scottwax]

Thought this was very interesting!


* 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 1½ 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 temperature measures 7050 degrees F.

* Nitromethane 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 1/2 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 at 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 red-line is actually quite high at 9500 rpm.

* 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 US $1,000.00 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 333.00 mph (533 km/h) as measured over the last 66' of the run (09/28/03 Doug Kalitta).

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 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.

[kgb]

I heard that each cylinder of a TFD makes more horses than a NASCAR

Good read Scott!

[FredBro]

THAT was kool!

Now let's talk about jet powered dragsters..

[DaGonz]

At the Fitchburg Airport' s annuall Autumn AirFest, there was a "race" between Les Shockley's "Shockwave" ( a 1957 Chevy pickup powered by two jet engines! ) vs. two of the aerobatic aircraft in the show. The aircraft approached the runway about 100 feet off the deck at 300 MPH, Shockwave took off from a standing start and blew right by under them! That was impressive!

[Old School]

Very interesting reading.

[Scottwax]

Originally posted by FredBro
THAT was kool!

Now let's talk about jet powered dragsters..

Okay, in a 1/4 mile standing start race, a top fuel car would beat a jet powered dragster. Fuelers run a 60 ft time of 0.8 seconds and are already going about 100 mph. Jet dragsters are hella quick once they get going, but the fuel car will beat them so bad off the line, a 1/4 mile is not enough to catch up.

Jet dragsters stage real cool though.

[PAW]

How do I arrange a test drive in one those?!?!

[Myles]

Not as exciting but hey.

At the Australian Grand Prix, they have speed comparison.

A BMW 318 vs V8 Supercar www.v8supercars.com.au vs BMW.Williams.F1 F1 Car.

The 318 get somthing like a minutes head start, v8 supercar 30 seconds head start on the F1 car.

They go around the Albert Park track and the F1 beats both cars. How the F1 car ropes in the V8 supercar on the straight and beats it is amazing.

[TOGWT]

Excellent Scott. I showed it to the F-18 crews here, much appreciated, Thanks

[Scottwax]

Originally posted by PAW
How do I arrange a test drive in one those?!?!

I couldn't even arrange a test drive in a customers Competition Eliminator C/A car. It was compartively slow at 7.54 @ 175.84-NHRA class record for almost 2 years!). What a rush that would have been. If he had a passenger seat, he would have given me a ride when he rented the Motorplex for half a day to test and tune.

Just the 1.06 second 60 foot timing would have been intense!

[PrinzII]

- The cost of said engine is around $65,000
- The driver is responsible for mixing the nitromethane (I actually found this out from a pit member of a funny car team)
- Nitromethane is technically nitrated propane
- It takes a Top Fuel dragster around .7 seconds (maybe less) to reach 60 mph

[Aurora40]

Originally posted by PAW
How do I arrange a test drive in one those?!?!

Hey Scott, thanks for that. Very interesting stuff.

For about $30, you can get a "test drive" in a vehicle that hits 120 mph in 4 seconds, then shoots 400 ft straight up, and then 400 ft straight down. Just go to Cedar Point, Ohio and ride the Top Thrill Dragster. It's quite impressive. If I recall right, the launcher creates about 16,000 horsepower. Plus, they have many other world-class rides as well.