DannyOne Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the
first 6 rows at the Daytona 500.
Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1 gallon 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 pass. 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 at an
average of over 4G's. In order to reach 200 mph well before half-track,
the launch acceleration approaches 8Gs.
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.
It takes 1500+hp just to turn a top fuel blower.
The pressure coming out of the headers can provide 1000lbs of down force. When a cylinder goes out, it can
actually steer the car due to loss of down force on one side.
There is so much torsional twist in the crankshaft (up to 20 degrees at the big
end of the track) that sometimes cam lobes are ground offset from front to rear
to try and re-phase the valve timing closer to synchronization with the pistons.
The car will be going over 60mph before the rear wheels cross the start line,
300 inches.
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 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 (or blown Viper). 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 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 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 1320 foot long race course.
