ACCELERATION ((((( HOLD ON )))))

[Steve P.]

This was sent to me and I thought it would make for good reading here.


NEAT READING FOR ALL CAR BUFF'S & NON CAR BUFF'S
THIS IS ABOUT SPEED---

"DEFINITION OF ACCELERATION"
  ... Fun Stuff !
(courtesy of KB Performance Pistons)


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 off, the crew is working 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!

[moparstuart]

 and we complain about our gas mileage and price    


  there is a serious shortage of  nitro methane right now and it's only made in china .   schumacker racing has it's own supplier and got fined for having it at the raceway . VP is the official suppier and i guess they got upset ( exclusive contract and all . i

[RD]

that is absolutely the closest I will ever be to driving one of those behemoths.  thanks for sharing the article. wow, what a great visualization at the end.

[CB]

impressive to say the least 

thanks for the info!

1000 bucks a second...8G's...6000+ HP  wow....

[firefighter3931]

I want one of those engines for the Charger ! 

Actually, i'd be happy with 10% of a TF motor's output 


Ron

[tan top]

HEMI 

[4aThrill]

Most likely they don't pay for gas; I would think their sponsors would be buying the gas and other things ya know.  that would be sweet if we all had something like that 

[Charger_Fan]

No wonder Big Daddy has detached retinas.

Man, that's a cool looking engine.

[Blown70]

By listening to most of the Mike Dunn Commentary most NHRA TOP FUEL dragsters are usually trucking along at the 1/8 mile at 270-278+MPH...... that IS AWESOME!!!! 

[hemi24]

SWEET !!!!

[Lowprofile]

It truly is amazing what man [and women] can do when they put their minds to it.  Taking a bucketfull of parts and making 8000 HP, or making 40 ton behemoths fly , building a space station in the darkness of space, or building a submarine that can travel around the globe under the oceans and ice caps undetected for months.......

Now if we can figure how to get 30 mpg out of our 440's.....


Great post Steve.....Thanks