darkman5001

I am watching NHRA Drag racing on ESPN2. How in the H*LL do they get 5,000-8,000 HP? That is ungodly. That has got to be an INCREDIBLE experience.

ClarenceT

Type R stickers and JDM Tenzo-Shogun Exhaust.

Dogs 86 Vette

Thanks for the laugh, I really needed it.

Bob

XQIZT

dump trucks filled with money and no emission standards

oldace84

Just totally awesum. Unbelievable. And they stay together.
I remember when, oh hell, just WOW!
Your right.

65Z01

Think of it, 8,000chp from a big block; of course they are only good for 1/4 mile, if that.

They are indeed awsome machines; if you haven't been there yet, you should come up to Englishtown next summer when they come to town.

I missed the E-town event earlier this year but caught them at Maple Grove last month. Believe me it's nothing like the TV event, no matter what kind of home sound system you have.

SLOWRIDE

Money :d

kenv

Cubic dollars will get you all the HP you can ask for

88421VETTE

I'm not greedy I'd be happen with a 1,000 street legal H.P.

Hippiehead025

massive stroked motors with huge displacemnt (900+) and high Cr. with large boost and high NOS shots. thts how...lol

JackDidley

Actually, it 500 cubes a supercharger and 85% nitromethane.

bmalec

The part I can't fathom:

I've driven my dad's ZR-1 several times, so I know what a car that can do 0-60 in 4.5 seconds or so feels like. I can *imagine* what it would feel like to accelerate at twice that rate, e.g. 0-120 MPH in 4.5 seconds.

But 0-320 MPH in under 5 seconds?!?!!?!? Does... not... compute.

Ben

Cozmo

So, would this set up work in the real world? I could see going to the grocery story, burning 3 tanks of fuel, blowing a motor and having a pit crew following me around. Not to mention burning the hair off of old folks in the crosswalk with my exhaust.

I want it!!!!

cv67

Now THAT'S a gearhead!!

StealDads67

Thats the easy part..... I want to know how they hook it!

ClarenceT

Last time one of my friends asked that, we told him the magic trick is to douse your tires with bleach. Yes he did it, yes he lost, and yes it was hilarious

HWoods

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'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.
At full throttle, cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock .

* At the stoichiometric (stoichiometry: methodology and technology by
which quantities of reactants and products in chemical reactions are
determined) 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. At half
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, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated
$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.

jrzvette

Think of it this way, by the time a top fuel dragster's rear wheels reach the point where his front wheels were staged he's doing 60mph.

Hippiehead025

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BAM92

Plus you get to rebuild engine after EVERY pass ( bearings, rings, gaskets,etc.). Read article about the acceleration being 0-60 in .7 seconds. 0-100 was 1.9 but that was an old article.