Off Topic: Ridiculous Horesepower

[Mark M]

What kind of mileage do you suppose they get with one of those?

Well, a top fuel dragster uses about 5 gallons of methanol in a 4 second run (think about that, take a full 5 gallon pail and try to dump it in 4 seconds...), so I would bet that those 5 engines are easily pulling more than 1 gallon per second.

Mark

[rapidray]

Well, a top fuel dragster uses about 5 gallons of methanol in a 4 second run (think about that, take a full 5 gallon pail and try to dump it in 4 seconds...), so I would bet that those 5 engines are easily pulling more than 1 gallon per second.

Mark

I have to correct you here. A top fuel dragster uses about 10 gallons of NITROMETHANE in a 4 second 1000 foot dragrace! But, YES, on your guess of about a gallon a second for 5 alcohol engines! Ray.

[Steve]

Some interesting reading on this 'off' topic. I have had this for some time, so some of the records mentioned may have been surpassed by now.

A friend of mine in Phoenix, Arizona passed this along on e-mail. I don't know who wrote it, but it's really interesting.

===============================================
Accelleration:

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 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’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 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. Afterward, 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 8G's.
* Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have completed reading this sentence.
* Including the burnout the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load.
* The redline is actually quite high at 9500rpm.
* 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. 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.

That, folks, is acceleration

[Eli69]

that's cool!!

[Mark M]

I have to correct you here. A top fuel dragster uses about 10 gallons of NITROMETHANE in a 4 second 1000 yard dragrace! But, YES, on your guess of about a gallon a second for 5 alcohol engines! Ray.

Hey Ray,

I should have said nitromethane/methanol mix (unless they have completely stopped using methanol in the mix). But it was 95% nitro / 5% methanol last I knew, so it was almost all nitro anyway...

Way back when I was watched NHRA (which was years ago), the 5 gallons number was always mentioned. I guess they are pumping more now... That is even crazier. Imagine someone sitting on top of your engine with two 5 gallon pails. When the lights go green, he dumps both pails down the injector throat in 4 seconds. Hard to imagine not drowning the engine with that much fuel hitting all at once.

Mark

[rapidray]

It was 85% & now it is back up to 90% maximum. Ray.

[Nessism]

Buddy of mine was helping out another buddy by being his "tire scraper" for a weekend - guy had a top fuel funny car. My friend said that when the engine was running, even at idle, the concussion from the pressure waves in the air made it hard to breath when you were near the car. Hard to even imagine.

Regarding the fuel consumption, there is so much fuel being forced into the engine they are almost to hydraulic lock! Not sure how much fuel we are talking about but it's a LOT!

[rudy]

Anybody that hasn't been to see a tractor/truck pull, or a top fuel dragster...... honestly, what are you WAITING FOR??? I think anybody on this board will appreciate the HP show. I've seen everything from lawnmowers to multi-engined tractors and one's running alcohol and nitrous. Some crazy $#!^ out there.

Checked out the Mopar Nationals last year. My first drag race, but I can vouch for the claims made by Nessism's buddy. And if you don't remember to plug your ears before they launch, you'll soon have damaged hearing because the horrific noise created by these engines stops your whole body from reacting to the signals sent by your brain.

Some guys I know were running a modified John Deere model A in the stock classes at some tractor pulls. They had aluminum pistons and rods and a modified crank and flywheels. This thing revved up to 2 or 3 times where a stock one would have blown up. Needless to say, they always won until they got kicked out. Then they moved on to bigger and faster things. Amazing how much money people throw at their hobbies......

[doctorgonzo]

"Amazing how much money people throw at their hobbies......"

Well, considering that after the top end rebuild I'm about to start I'll probably have over $4000 in a 27 year old bike I couldn't sell for half that... it doesn't amaze me at all.

[hp1000s]

I always enjoyed seeing the heavily-modified diesel tractors run, with their injector pumps turned waaayyyy up...they'd put out enough black smoke to block out the sun. I first saw tractor-pulling in the late '60's, at a place called Cowtown Rodeo, in Woodstown,NJ. where I grew up. I was told that this was the birthplace of the inclined pulling sled w/ the big weight.

[Dogma]

I always enjoyed seeing the heavily-modified diesel tractors run, with their injector pumps turned waaayyyy up...they'd put out enough black smoke to block out the sun. I first saw tractor-pulling in the late '60's, at a place called Cowtown Rodeo, in Woodstown,NJ. where I grew up. I was told that this was the birthplace of the inclined pulling sled w/ the big weight.

Oh, yes. I have only seen those once, and that on TV. The front end of one of these trucks was permanently twisted from all the torque. Sitting still, it looked like it had been in a wreck. When pulling, the front end was off the ground and twisted about 30°.