A friend emailed me this.
Good read.
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 top fuel dragster engine consumes 1.5 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 426 hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to drive a 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 7050 degrees 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 equivalent to the output of an arc welder in each cylinder.
Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass.
After half track, 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.
To exceed 300 mph in 4.5 seconds, dragsters must accelerate at an average of over 4 Gs. To reach 200 mph well before half track, the launch acceleration approaches 8 Gs.
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 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 $1,000 per second.
The top fuel dragster record elapsed time is 4.42 for quarter mile by Doug Kalitta.
The top speed record is 335.57 mph by Doug Kalitta.
Putting these stats into perspective...
If you are riding your average $250,000 Honda MotoGP bike and 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 obviously have the advantage of a FLYING start.
You can run the bike hard through the gears and blast across the starting line and pass the dragster at 200 mph.
When the tree goes green for both of you at that moment, the dragster launches and starts after you.
You can keep your wrist cranked hard, but you'll hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums and within 3 seconds the dragster catches you and passes you AND 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, a dragster can spot you 200 mph and not only catch you, but blast you off the road when it passes you within a mere 1320 foot long race track.
Now that, folks, is acceleration.
Good read.
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 top fuel dragster engine consumes 1.5 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 426 hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to drive a 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 7050 degrees 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 equivalent to the output of an arc welder in each cylinder.
Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass.
After half track, 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.
To exceed 300 mph in 4.5 seconds, dragsters must accelerate at an average of over 4 Gs. To reach 200 mph well before half track, the launch acceleration approaches 8 Gs.
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 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 $1,000 per second.
The top fuel dragster record elapsed time is 4.42 for quarter mile by Doug Kalitta.
The top speed record is 335.57 mph by Doug Kalitta.
Putting these stats into perspective...
If you are riding your average $250,000 Honda MotoGP bike and 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 obviously have the advantage of a FLYING start.
You can run the bike hard through the gears and blast across the starting line and pass the dragster at 200 mph.
When the tree goes green for both of you at that moment, the dragster launches and starts after you.
You can keep your wrist cranked hard, but you'll hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums and within 3 seconds the dragster catches you and passes you AND 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, a dragster can spot you 200 mph and not only catch you, but blast you off the road when it passes you within a mere 1320 foot long race track.
Now that, folks, is acceleration.
