Sent to me by that notorious RL Lifetime member, Fill.

(See, I'm almost as good at cutting and pasting as A.Wayne )

In the last factoid, I'm thinking you could substitute an F-1 car for the twin-turbo Vette.

(And no, I did not Snopes or check out in any way any of these "facts")


* 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 11.2 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 merely drive the dragster's 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 nitro methane the flame front temperature measures 7,050° 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 1/2 way, the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1,400° 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.

* Dragsters reach over 300 MPH before you have completed reading this sentence.

* 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.
* 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. (yeah, yeah, I know what RPM an F-1 motor turns)

* THE BOTTOM LINE: Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, & 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 333.00 MPH (533 km/h) as measured over the last 66' of the run (09/28/03, Doug Kalitta).

Putting this all 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 & 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 & pass the dragster at an honest 200 MPH. The 'tree' goes green for both of you at that moment.

The dragster launches & starts after you. You keep your foot down hard, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums & within 3 seconds, the dragster catches & 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 & not only caught, but nearly blasted you off the road when he passed you within a mere 1,320 foot long race!

That's acceleration!

(this last analogy was originally done by a writer in the 60s named Ken Purdy in an article on pre-war MB Grand Prix cars)

 

That is why I won't drag race my P-car!!!

I'd be embarrassed! Except for when we have to go around some curves!

 

That's nothing, this is power...

http://people.bath.ac.uk/ccsshb/12cyl/

Nothing like needing a crane to install your mains!

Cheers
Randy

 

Cool.

Will that fit in an S2's engine bay?

If so, I can't wait to see you at Road Atlanta next spring...

 

I'll be the car that sits a little low in the front!

 

Yes. But I think I can dial out the push by adjusting tire pressure

 

Yeah, but that's the stock engine. You really need to get the lightened flywheel and titanium rods to help with the throttle response. Those aren't too expensive IIRC

 

Good timing. I was in Topeka for the NHRA Nationals three weeks ago. The only word that comes to mind is Wow.

 

Those damn Schumacher's!!!

(now Wayne can chime in)

 

Mike,
What client did you bill during that anaolgy ?

 

Another fun drag racer datum:

The exhaust pipes are always pointer up and back,
because the spent gases coming from them generates
3000 lbs of downforce, necessary for the multiple-G
acceleration especially at the start, before the speed is
enough for aero-generated downforce.

 

Actually Tony holds both records. His speed record stands at 336.15. Completely unrelated to that fact, I grew up with him.

 

Not sure I get this one? At 9500 RPM, 900 revs would only be 1/10th of a second?

----
* Top Fuel engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light!

* Including the burnout, the engine must only survive 900
revolutions under load.

 

9500 Revolutions per minute = 158.33 Revolutions per Second.
A 4.441 second pass would be 703 revolutions, assuming instant acceleration to redline and letting the clutches do all the work. I don't feel like doing the math and I don't know the initial rpm or the engine acceleration, but 540 is probably about right.

 

i remember seeing this on a nationals promo i got a couple years ago. one item was missing. something like the crankshaft is milled offset, so when the torque hits, it twists straight. i'm not a drag racing fan, but the top fuels are pretty unbelievable.