Here are some interesting trivia facts about some REAL power! The part at the end where it talks about the hottest Z06 Corvette is really cool... * 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 1-1/2 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 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 p***. After ½ 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 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 9500rpm. * The Bottom Line; ***uming 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 p***. 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 p***es you. He beats you to the finish line, a quarter mile away from where you just p***ed 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 p***ed you within a mere 1320 foot long race course. That folks... is acceleration....
****! thats kickin' ***. that 200 mph headstart thing really drives it home. i've got an old rod and custom from 53 and they did a scientific study on how fast a car could go in the quarter. the scientist in the story said that an internal combustion engine could never under any cer***stance exceed 166 mph. i guess science has changed since then.
yah that was in a ckdeluxe issue... those facts are good read. these pilots have balls bigger than hugh hefner. only people that can compare in ball size are test pilots like chuck jaeger(sp?) id think most of us have seen these things run in person... i remember Force's funny car at half track looking like a violently shaking blur... even with hands over my ears, the sharp jabbing pain for a split second was crazy as an aside, whats the current land speed record? i seem to recall it was some english guy in a twin jet engine ride.. mid 600mph run or somethin?
Someone posted this a while back and I kept it cause I thought that it was cool... The eerie part is that the roof hatch says "in memory of 9/11" and the rest of the car is engulfed in flames.... irony HC
Plan 9 Andy Green took the record to 714.144 and broke the sound barrier in Thrust SCC a twin jet thing. Don Vesco has recently taken the wheel driven record. john.
You have to read those statements correctly when you read that. Certainly a stock hemi can turn the supercharger over. It just might not be able to turn it over at the speeds they turn them during a race (say the engine turns 9000 and the blower is 50% overdriven then it spins at 13,500 RPM-- not that those are the actual figures, but for an example). Wild stuff though. I'll never ever fool with it. Alcohol maybe, but not dynamite.
Oh yeah, and when I just said that, I really wasn't talking about the RPM. I meant that at the RPM they spin those tight blowers, it takes a lot of HP to turn them, and I guess maybe a stock hemi doesn't put out enough HP or torque to cover that in direct drive.
The nit picky engineer in me coming out... Top Fuelers define QUICK, not necessarily fast (retively speaking). For Fast, go to Bonneville. LSR cars are FAST, not quick. Either one make me excited.
We go to Indy for the Nats every year.We always sit near the xmas tree and the sound and feel of those top fuelers is the best part of the whole day. When they do the burnouts they are running on gas, then after they stage they turn on the fuel pumps for the nitro.What a difference in the sound when that happens!!! Now I'm stoked and ready to go !!!! But I guess I'll have to wait until Labor day.
Great facts, I got them in an e-mail a while ago. Andy Green is an acquaintance of mine. I jumped with him at the Army Parachute Nationals here in Oz. He was recruited to drive the car from the RAF, where he fly Tornado fighter bombers. He told me that pilots were asked to put there names down for it, he got the drive because he was the only volunteer available at the time. They thought a fighter jock would be more 'used' to operating at those speeds. Imagine being the worlds fastest man on wheels because you had nothing better to do! Doc.
nice facts and here i wasnt sure anyone was faster than a chick yakkin on her cell phone in her mommy mobile mini van ..
how fast is fast? that aint nothin compaired to the time it takes the wench to start *****in when she finds out i bought some more of "that old ****"
i still like a j foyts comment to a drag racer." the next time you are doing 200 mph start thinking about turning left."
The one that gets Me is 540 revolutions. When You are near one of these making a p*** it sounds like a gazillion revolutions. I still cant fathom 540 ?? FEDER
Know how fast FAST is? I read this very thread back in 2003. It took some of you 5 extra years to catch up!
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