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TOP
FUEL DRAGSTER STATS
One dragster's 500-inch Hemi makes more
horsepower then the first 8 rows at Daytona. Under full throttle, a
dragster engine consumes 1 1/2 gallons of nitro per second, (that's about
10 gallons per run!), the same rate of fuel consumption as a fully loaded
747, but with 4 times the energy volume.
The supercharger takes more power to drive then a stock hemi makes.
Even with nearly 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on
overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into nearly-solid form before
ignition.
Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock.
Dual magnetos apply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an
arc welder in each cylinder.
At stoichiometric (exact) 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture (for nitro), the flame
front of nitro methane measures 7050 degrees 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.
Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After 1/2 way,
the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust valves
at1400 degrees F. The engine can only be shut down by cutting off it's
fuel flow.
If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in
those cylinders and then explodes with a force that can blow cylinder
heads off the block in pieces or blow the block in half.
Dragsters twist the crank (torsionally) so far (20 degrees in the big end
of the track) that sometimes cam lobes are ground offset from front to
rear to re-phase the valve timing somewhere closer to synchronization with
the pistons.
To exceed 300mph in 4.5 seconds
dragsters must accelerate at an average of over 4G's. But in reaching 200
mph well before 1/2 track, launch acceleration is closer to 8G's.
If all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once
NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs $1000.00 per second.
Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have read this
sentence. * Top Fuel Engines ONLY turn 540 revolutions from
light to light!
The redline is actually quite high at 9500 rpm.
To give you an idea of this acceleration, the current TF dragster elapsed
time record is 4.441 seconds for the quarter mile. This means that you
could be coming across the starting line in your average Lingenfelter
powered "twin-turbo" Corvette at 200 mph (on a FLYING START) and
the dragster would BEAT you to the finish line FROM A DEAD STOP in a
quarter mile distance!
PERFORMANCE EXAMPLES
0 to 100 MPH in .8
seconds (the first 60 feet of the run)
0-200 MPH in 2.2 seconds
(the first 350 feet of the run)
6 g-forces at the
starting line (nothing accelerates faster on land)
6 negative g-forces upon
deployment of twin ‘chutes at 300 MPH
An NHRA Top Fuel Dragster
accelerates quicker than any other land vehicle on earth . . . quicker
than a jet fighter plane . . . quicker than the space shuttle.
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