Although a few years old...these facts are INCREDIBLE!!! Especially the 200mph head start in a ZO-6!!
Eddie


Acceleration; Put Into Perspective

* 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 1-1/2 gallons 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 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 9500rpm.

* The Bottom Line; Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, & 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 & 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 & blast across the starting line & past the dragster at an honest 200 mph. The 'tree' goes green for both of you at that moment.

The dragster launches & starts after you. You keep your foot down hard, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums & within 3 seconds the dragster catches & 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 & not only caught, but nearly blasted you off the road when he passed you within a mere 1320 foot long race course.

That, is acceleration!

 

Interesting information. I seemed to remember seeing another list on this forum a while back with completely different (and interesting) facts.

 

Wonder what kind of floor mats they use in the Top Fuel crowd?

 

Don't for get the Zano and cup holders

 

OK, let's examine the facts about this Lingenfelter twin turbo going an honest 200 mph at the time the top fuel dragster starts. Who really wins?

200 miles per hour / 60 minutes/hour = 3.3333~ miles per minute
3.3333~ miles per minute * 4 = 13.3333~ quarter miles per minute
13.3333~ quarter miles per minute / 60 = 0.2222~ quarter miles per second
1 / 0.2222~ quarter miles per second = 4.5 seconds to cover the quarter mile starting at 200 mph.

Right?

So the record breaking top fuel dragster, admittely on its best day, will beat the Lingenfelter twin turbo. But we all know that the Lingenfelter twin turbo will run an honest 200 mph all day long, every day, with the AC on and the CD player puttin' out the tunes.

And we really know that the Lingenfelter twin turbo will actually do closer to 220 mph. Plug that in to your calculations, and Lingenfelter wins.

Besides, I don't know that the top fuel dragsters can consistently run 4.5 seconds, every day, all day, with the AC on and the CD player blasting.

I'll take one Lingenfelter twin turbo please. Make it dark red metallic and tan leather with the big brake package, and hold the body graphics please.

 

Very interesting

I've been to Indy many times and when the Funny cars/Top fuel cars are running it is unbelievable what the shock wave from that kind of HP feels like.

I also enjoy the pits when they fire up the nitro meth motors, all the spectators scatter like chickens due to the deafening volume/shock wave and the tear gas like effect of the nitro.

 

Wow. Thanks for sharing the information. Can't imagine what it would be like to drive one through the quarter mile.

 

as many times as I see this post, I still love it.....

incredible!

 

Your missing the point here... You concentrating on the Z06 is like reading the articles in Swank magazine... you just dont do it.


This info is putting into perspective the magnitude of power these dragsters put out... Its F'ing incredible.. Come on, 44 amps to each spark plug? Burning atmospheric hydrogen?...... incredible

 

This one is a typo. They burn 1 1/2 gallons of fuel per second. I have this saved on a file and had to go back and check it. With your 11.2 gallons they would need about 60 gallons for burnout and run. They don't carry but about 10 gallons in the car. It is still amazing facts though.

 

Thanks for the post ,now I really wont be able to sleep .There here in seattle NHRA top fuel at pacific raceways and at 7:00am I will be there for the gates to open. I have reserved seating right at the light next to the tower. Ony problem is no shade and it"s going to be around 95 , that melting temps here. I was hoping for cool weather they go faster

 

I think that is only refering to the full throttle part. They idle and do a burnout on the first gallon or so. The other 6 or 7 gallons go under full throttle in the next 5 seconds at that high rate...

 

I just cut and pasted this...but I think your right!
Eddie

 

I was taking to one of the top fuel crews the other week and they were saying they burn 7-8 Gallons during thier test firing in the pits and 20 for thier burnout and 1/4 mile run....all at $80. per gallon...
Motor is torn down after every run, piston/rod assemblies are swapped out(recycled) new rings, heads are checked over clearences all checked, motor is buttoned back up,,,all in under 90 minutes between rounds...no wonder it costs so much per run

 

Me too

 

I'm a crew chief on a nostalgia funny car, we run 80% + nitro, only one mag, and one fuel pump. We burn 5 gallons on warm up and about 7 gallons on a run. Maybe the pro guy spend more on the nitro then we do since it is premixed, but we buy 100% nitro and mix it to the precentage we need and it run about $30 pre gallon. WE are running at Indy this weekend if anyone is in the area and wants to see and hear one run, don't forget to come by the pits and say hi, and get a close up smell of the nitro during warm up.

 

i'm pretty sure that people in the market for top fuel teams arent the same people in the market for an air conditioned corvette. you're comparing apples to staplers here.

 

Hello Kenny
I like the Vega and I love drag racing. It is too bad you guys don't ever come up to Canada, but we don't have much of a nostalgia series up here
The side of the Vega reminds me of the Jungle Jim paint scheme somewhat
I have alot of respect for the guy who can drive this, but I have just as much for the guy that wrenches on a car like this
I am impressed
take care
Tom
......I have been gassed before......eyes and guts hurting

 

Yeah, I've seen that list several times before, but it's still just incredible.

 

I believe this is correct, as on "NHRA2DAY" last year, a crew-chief (maybe Rahn Tobler? ), showed a device that shows fuel-flow at max-RPM, and he quoted 90-95 gallons-per-minute.


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I understand Forum-member Kenny Bonnell and team had a very good weekend at IRP:

http://www.classicfunnycarboard.com/...=ST;f=1;t=2298