DEFINITION OF ACCELERATION



One top fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower
than the first 4 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 engine consumes 1-1/2 gallons of nitro
methane 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 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: methodology and technology by
which quantities of reactants and products in chemical reactions are
determined) 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture of nitro methane, the flame front
temperature measures 7,050 deg F.

Nitro methane 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
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
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'*. In order to reach 200 mph (well before
half-track), the launch acceleration approaches 8G'*.

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 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 $1,000.00 per
second.

The current top fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.428 seconds for
the quarter mile (11/12/06, Tony Schumacher, at Pomona , CA ). The top
speed record is 336.15 mph as measured over the last 66' of the run
(05/25/05 Tony Schumacher, at Hebron , OH ).

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 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 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 1,320 foot long race course.

...... and that my friend, is ACCELERATION!

Great read Man, I really enjoyed it!

I feel like your describing my ride to work in the morning to beat the red light a block away. Awesome read, thanks for the time put into writing it

The power in those cars simply blows my mind.

One big controlled explosion through a drive train and transmitted to some tires!

i love the part about how a stock dodge hemi couldnt even produce enough power to turn the blower. haha, hey does that thing got a hemi

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