Top Fuel Dragster facts?
Senior Member
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 4,928
Likes: 1
From: The People's Republic of Los Angeles
From a 12-year old Car and Driver article:
"When Ormsby's car is "really hooked up," it leaves the starting lights with 5.5 g's of acceleration--the same face-flattening jolt experienced by a pilot in a Navy A-6E Intruder catapulted off a carrier's deck. After a particularly good holeshot, Ormsby's dragster will hit 100 mph in one second of mid-warping noise, smoke, and fury. Put another way, a perfectly launched Top Fueler can accelerate from a standstill to 100 mph in 79 feet--just three times its own length.
. . . .
Forcing a reciprocating engine--even a supercharged (to 34 psi) Godzilla motor--to produce 5,465 horsepower is both difficult and dangerous. "It's like plunging your toilet with a Claymore mine," says one engine builder. "It will probably work, but it's hard on the toilet."
. . . .
During its five-second full-power run, the dragster will squirt through its 32 injectors another five to seven gallons--a minimum of a gallon per second. That is 7.5 times the rate at which fuel flows from the self-service nozzle at our local Mobil station. In five seconds, that's more than you could spill by overturning seven one-gallon buckets."
Read the whole article here.
"When Ormsby's car is "really hooked up," it leaves the starting lights with 5.5 g's of acceleration--the same face-flattening jolt experienced by a pilot in a Navy A-6E Intruder catapulted off a carrier's deck. After a particularly good holeshot, Ormsby's dragster will hit 100 mph in one second of mid-warping noise, smoke, and fury. Put another way, a perfectly launched Top Fueler can accelerate from a standstill to 100 mph in 79 feet--just three times its own length.
. . . .
Forcing a reciprocating engine--even a supercharged (to 34 psi) Godzilla motor--to produce 5,465 horsepower is both difficult and dangerous. "It's like plunging your toilet with a Claymore mine," says one engine builder. "It will probably work, but it's hard on the toilet."
. . . .
During its five-second full-power run, the dragster will squirt through its 32 injectors another five to seven gallons--a minimum of a gallon per second. That is 7.5 times the rate at which fuel flows from the self-service nozzle at our local Mobil station. In five seconds, that's more than you could spill by overturning seven one-gallon buckets."
Read the whole article here.
Thread Starter
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Senior Member
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,251
Likes: 0
From: Bellevue, WA
Found it...
Found it on the web, then here...
* 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, 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 nitromethane 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.
* 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
at
1400 degrees F. The engine can only be shut down by cutting off its 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 around $1000.00 per second.
* Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have read this
sentence.
* 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, 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 nitromethane 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.
* 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
at
1400 degrees F. The engine can only be shut down by cutting off its 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 around $1000.00 per second.
* Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have read this
sentence.