What is REAL acceleration

[Guest Zwilling]

What is real acceleration???

But first, some useful info:

· 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 7 litres 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 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 nitro methane the flame front temperature 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 vapour 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 1/2 way, the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1400 degrees F. (This me friends means the the spark plugs are melted within a couple of seconds and the fuel burns from pre-ignition, like a diesel engine)

· 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 475kph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must accelerate at an average of over 4G's. In order to reach 300 kph well before half-track, the launch acceleration approaches 8G's.

· Dragsters reach over 475 kilometres per hour before you have completed reading this sentence (depends on your reading skill I guess)

· Top Fuel Engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light!

· Including the burnout the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load.

· The red-line is actually quite high at 9500 rpm.

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 US$1,000.00 per second. The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.441 seconds for the quarter mile (5/10/03, Tony Schumacher). The top speed record is 533 km/h as measured over the last 66' of the run (28/09/03 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 333 kph and not only caught you, but nearly blasted you off the road when he passed you within a mere 400m race track.

That, folks, is acceleration!

[Grant 4]

Amazing...and very interesting

[Guest Zwilling]

I wreckon the best bits are the fact that it can chew 7 litres of petrol per second and that the spark plugs melt almost instantaneously

[Gus 5]

so they probably dont use it as their daily driver then?

pity

[Grant 4]

so they probably dont use it as their daily driver then?

pity

Maybe if they were running late for a meeting, or appointment they do.

[Gus 5]

probably come back and find it towed

bastards

[Guest Spargo]

Schumacher, any relation?

[bumpstop325 0]

f**k thats fast.

dam.

i have seen those on tv. makes the magic sub-10 drag look like a push the car over the line