# For All The Motor-Heads, Acceleration Defined



## vtxbud (Apr 4, 2009)

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's 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'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 9,500 rpm.

Assuming all the equipment is paid for, 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.

...... that is ACCELERATION!


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## johnp (Mar 15, 2004)

Words cannot decribe the joy I'm feeling after reading that. Now if only they a scented candle that smelled like burning rubber or Cam2.

John


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## SLO250RS (Mar 11, 2010)

It is truly amazing to watch these cars? run down the track.The shear power is something to behold and stay together.Thanks for the read.


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## PDX_Doug (Nov 16, 2004)

I love the smell of race fuel in the morning. It smells like...Victory!

Really an amazing collection of fact. Wow! I believe I will take exception to the 747 comparison, but other than that it is really mind blowing!

Happy Trails,
Doug


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## GlenninTexas (Aug 11, 2004)

So should I consider this as a tow vehicle for a new 300BH, or should I go with a pro-stock class? Will the rear bumper of the Outbacker be strong enough to attach the chutes?

And when camping , should I wait until after 8 am to fire it up to go get my Sunday morning newspaper so as not to disturb my camping neighbors?

Regards, Glenn


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## Red Beard (Feb 13, 2010)

Some other quick facts- the space shuttle pulls LESS G's at take off, fighter jets pull less G's, the angle of the headers actully keep the car on the ground as well as adding to the forward motion of the car.


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## Nathan (Jan 2, 2007)

Red Beard said:


> Some other quick facts- the space shuttle pulls LESS G's at take off, fighter jets pull less G's, the angle of the headers actully keep the car on the ground as well as adding to the forward motion of the car.


Ah, but both the shuttle and fighter jets can travel further than 1/4 mile before needing an entire engine rebuild!


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## N7OQ (Jun 10, 2006)

Something I experience every time I drive my Duramax


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## vtxbud (Apr 4, 2009)

PDX_Doug said:


> I love the smell of race fuel in the morning. It smells like...Victory!
> 
> Really an amazing collection of fact. Wow! I believe I will take exception to the 747 comparison, but other than that it is really mind blowing!
> 
> ...


Yeah, I wondered about the 747 rate as well. A check of a Boeing site indicates the 747-400 burns about 5 gallons per mile or 1.2 gallons per second. WOW !


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## Ghosty (Jan 17, 2005)

N7OQ said:


> Something I experience every time I drive my Duramax


EXACTLY !!!!


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## Calvin&Hobbes (May 24, 2006)

And then you both woke up....


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## SLO250RS (Mar 11, 2010)

You DIESEL guys forgot one thing YOU DON'T HAVE SPARK PLUGS!














Have a Merry Christmas everybody.


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## GlenninTexas (Aug 11, 2004)

Ghosty said:


> Something I experience every time I drive my Duramax


EXACTLY !!!!
[/quote]

You mean having to rebuild the engine after every trip or the fuel mileage?

Regards, Glenn


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

The 747 thing is taken out of context. the fuel used by a 747 contains a much lower BTU density then the nitromethane and if they burned fuel at the same rate would produce less energy as mentioned, just the nature of the fuel. The thing is the Rolls-Royce engines on a 747 produces about 50,000 horse power each and can run for up to about 20,000 hours on the wing. With 4 of them running and burning up to 1.2 gallons a second as mentioned by another poster, that is about 200,000 horse power and moving a few more tons then your average rail!


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## PDX_Doug (Nov 16, 2004)

I wondered how long it would take Andy to weigh in on this one!









Happy Trails,
Doug


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## KTMRacer (Jun 28, 2010)

Now they are hitting 300+MPH in 1000ft. Starting about 2 years ago, after the death of Scott Killitta (sp?), NHRA shortend the run for top fuel & funny car. Now they run 1000ft, still hitting about 275MPH at the 1/8 mile point and top speed is 310+MPH for top fuel, slightly less for funny cars, et's just under 4 seconds. So even though the track was shortend by almost 30% (420 ft) they STILL are hitting the same top speed!! Imagine the fuel line and fuel pump for these engines. More like a big sewer pipe!!. One show had a video of the fuel flow and it's incredible to watch. They are moving almost 100 gallons of nitro/minute. At that rate I'd empty my 43 fresh water tank in about 25 seconds!

Another interesting fact, if even one cylinder stops firing, the driver needs to countersteer becuase of the impbalance in exhaust forces between the two engine sides. If they loose 3 or 4 on one side, it's virtually impossible to countersteer enough and the driver usually ends up shutting down. (course by that point they've lost the race anyway.) Watch sometime and when a cylinder goes (start seeing a white cloud out of one header from unburned fuel) you usually can see the car veer slightly.

One track runs 4 cars at once for top fuel and funny car. Incredible to watch.


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## N7OQ (Jun 10, 2006)

GlenninTexas said:


> Something I experience every time I drive my Duramax


EXACTLY !!!!
[/quote]

You mean having to rebuild the engine after every trip or the fuel mileage?

Regards, Glenn
[/quote]

Nope just the acceleration, HP, G's and pure torque. The only way a Top fuel dragster can get to the next track fast is behind a diesel.


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## thefulminator (Aug 8, 2007)

A dragster doesn't weigh just shy of one million pounds at take off.

If a 747 ran on nitro in stead of JP4 which is pretty much kerosene, that would be a show better than any dragster.


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## johnp (Mar 15, 2004)

I think I don't want to be anywhere near that jet when he fires it up. BOOM


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## LTCMontana (Jan 18, 2010)

This reminds me of an article many years ago in Car and Driver that quoted a crew chief, when talking about the supercharger, "It's like flushing a toilet with a claymore mine. It gets the job done but it's really hard on the toilet."

He also said, " If you line up 7 one gallon buckets full of water and start kicking them over as quick as you can, the car will burn the fuel faster."

When they get to the end of the run, deploying the shute puts so much force on the car that it sends the fuel back to the tank and shuts the car off.


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