07/23/2024
Interesting facts about Top Fuel Dragsters
Drag racing must be one of the most expensive hobbies on the Planet! A single barrel of fuel is over $750.00 US, and here is what you get from that :
TOP FUEL ACCELERATION PUT INTO PERSPECTIVE
* One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic-inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower (10,000 HP) than the first 5 rows at the Daytona 500.
* Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1.2-1.5 gallons of nitro methane per second; a fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate, producing 25% less energy.
* A stock Dodge Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to 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 7050 degrees F.
* Nitromethane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen dissociated from atmospheric water vapour 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 the 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.
0 to 100 MPH in .8 seconds (the first 60 feet of the run)
0 to 200 MPH in 2.2 seconds (the first 350 feet of the run)
* To exceed 300 MPH in 4.5 seconds, dragsters must accelerate an average of over 4 G's. To reach 200 MPH well before half-track, the launch acceleration approaches 8 G's.
6 g-forces at the starting line (nothing accelerates faster on land)
6 negative g-forces upon deployment of twin chutes at 300 MPH. A Top Fuel Dragster accelerates quicker than any other land vehicle on earth and is quicker than a jet fighter - quicker than the space shuttle.
* Top Fuel engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light!
* The engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load, including the burnout.
* The redline is actually relatively high at 9500 RPM.
* The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.420 seconds for the quarter-mile. The top speed record is 337.58 MPH as measured over the last 66' of the run.
The bottom line: Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and nothing blows up, each run costs an estimated $1,000 per second.
The picture shows what 10,000 horsepower does to a top fuel tyre at launch.
