One Top Fuel Dragster's 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes
more horsepower than the first four 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's engine consumes 1-1/2
gallons of nitromethane per second; a fully loaded Boeing
747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate, with 25% less
energy being produced.
A stock Dodge Hemi V8 engine can't 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: the methodology and
technology by which quantities of reactants and products
in chemical reactions are determined) 1.7:1 air/fuel
mixture of nitromethane, the flame-front temperature
measures 7,050 deg 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 one
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 the 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 can
read 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 off, the crew worked
for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an
estimate $1,000 per second.
The current Top Fuel Dragster elapsed time record is 4.428
seconds for the quarter mile (11/12/06, by Tony
Schumacher, at Pomona , CA.) The top speed record is
336.15 mph, measured over the last 66 feet of the run
(05/25/05, Tony Schumacher, at Hebron , OH.)
Putting all of this into perspective:
You're driving the average $140,000 Lingenfelter
'twin-turbo' powered Corvette Z06. Over a mile ahead of
you, a Top Fuel Dragster is staged and ready to launch
down a quarter mile strip as you pass by. You have the
advantage of a flying start. You run the 'Vette hard up
through the gears, 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 three 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
spotted you 200 mph, and not only caught you, but nearly
blasted you off the road when he passed you on a race
course only 1,320 feet long .