Acceleration

[BDowning]

Amazing stats . . . . .

Read this thru slowly and try to comprehend the amount of force produced in just under 4 seconds!
There are no rockets or airplanes built by any government in the world that can accelerate from a standing start as fast as a Top Fuel Dragster or Funny Car!


DEFINITION OF ACCELERATION

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 for, 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.

...... and that my friend, is ACCELERATION!

[Smittro]

Cool read!

[FasstChevys]

Yep! Awesome repost!!

I enjoy it every time

[BLK2KSS]

very cool stuff!

[Eganslp]

speechless!!! & well put together.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Spikito]

i read this somewhere along time ago....still gives me chills

[02transamce]

doesen't the clutch weld itself together during the pass?

[35th-ANV-SS]

200 miles per hour * 1hr / 60 min * 1 min / 60 sec = 0.055 miles per second

Therefore at 200 mph a car would take the following to make a 1/4 miles pass:
0.055 miles per second * X.XX seconds = 0.25 miles. 0.25 miles / 0.055 seconds = 4.545 seconds in the 1/4 mile.

If the car went just over 200MPH for the blow-by it would win

[Schmalgar]

That's awesome stuff, almost boggles my brain. I think this one said it best.

Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have completed reading this sentence.

[Firebirdjones]

With all the talk of G force, I'm surprised it doesn't mention anything about the G forces endured when the parachute comes out. It's worse than take off.

It's the reason people like Don Garlits were forced to retire, it was seperating the retna in his eyes. Too much more and he would go blind.

[stickman]

amazing.

[02transamce]

saw anton brown ran the 1000 in 3.77 seconds.NHRA ftw

[024mula]

With all the talk of G force, I'm surprised it doesn't mention anything about the G forces endured when the parachute comes out. It's worse than take off.

It's the reason people like Don Garlits were forced to retire, it was seperating the retna in his eyes. Too much more and he would go blind.

No body every talks about what top fuel funny car will do to a person physicaly.

I didn't know about people might go blind because of this? (interesting)

[Firebirdjones]

No body every talks about what top fuel funny car will do to a person physicaly.

I didn't know about people might go blind because of this? (interesting)

Yep,,,many years back it's what the Doctors told Garlits. G forces are hard on the body. A few of those top fuelers have vision problems after many years.
It's also the reason alot of off shore boat racers have such a short career, all that jarring around on the water is hard on your insides.

[tegaman111]

that is plain ridiculous, ludicrous speed!

[Smittro]

that is plain ridiculous, ludicrous speed!

"They've gone to plad!"

I come back and reread this once in a while.. Good stuff..