Some "top fuel" drag car facts you may be interested in.

[frayz]

• One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch (that's 8.2 litres in new money) Hemi

engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500.

• Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 11/2 gallons of

nitromethane 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 nitromethane the

flame front temperature 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.

• 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. 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

at 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 9500rpm.

• 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 ( 10/05/03,
Tony Schumacher). The top speed record is 333.00 mph (533 km/h) as
measured over the last 66' of the run ( 09/28/03 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 200 mph and not only caught, but nearly
blasted you off the road when he passed you within a mere 1320 foot
long race course.

That, folks, is acceleration.

[Scousefella]

Interesting facts there but can the average Top fuel car burn money as fast as an Essex wife on a mission?

[Drew986]

I love these top fuel facts.

Watch the video to put in perspective how much fuel a blown 8.2ltr Nitromethane burning V8 requires.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGTbQuhhluY

[Crafty_]

Apparently the dieseling thing isn't true any more, because there is too much fuel about. I found this recently, which is pretty interesting http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles/ccrp_1009_800...

the article said:

...The popular MSD Super 44 magnetos are so powerful that they deliver 1.2 amps of electrical energy across the spark plug gap each time a plug fires...

.. engines inhale as much as 80 gallons of fuel per minute at peak torque, which is equivalent to 1.3 gallons of fuel per second!..

1.3 US gallons = 4.9 litres. If we assumed a 4 second quarter I *think* thats something like 17 imperial gallons to the mile.

Even over here a top fuel car is going from standstill to over 100mph in 0.8 of a second, they do that in just 60 feet. If you've never seen a fuel car launch I urge you to go to the pod and stand down near the start line, it is truely epic.
So sad they took the barn away

They went to 1000 feet in the US partly for costs but also partly because there were a few accidents at the top end. Even so, they're back up at over 325mph in the 1000 feet now.

I once saw a quote from Don Garlits (and he should know) who reckoned if the NHRA didn't keep changing stuff they could be at over 350 in the quarter now - and that quote was a few years old!

Someone asked about the transmission they use - simple, there isn't one.
They have a 4 plate clutch that gradually engages by a hydraulics, the hydraulics are controlled by a timer that at the specified time adds more pressure, locking the clutch up. I think the clutch is slipping until roughly halfway, when its solidly locked up.
Here you go:

IMG_2332 by c20let, on Flickr

The crew chief sets up the clutch timers and the fuelling - if he gets it wrong and engages the clutch too soon the car will just erupt in to wheelspin and tyreshake, let it slip too long you end up with a "slow" time or even worse risk over revving the motor - bad things happen when you do that, very bad things...


IMG_2323 by c20let, on Flickr

Likewise, if too much fuel is added too soon, the motor can hydraulic on fuel, which is also a bad idea!

The clutch is covered by a can, whose job it is to catch all the pieces if it all goes a bit wrong.

If you are in Florida its worth going up to the Don Garlits Museum in Ocala. Some pictures from a few years ago: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hotrods/sets/72157607...

I found this story years ago, but I think it is superb, would have loved to have been able to go to Lions with all the FEDs, slingshots and diggers running on almost pure nitro.
http://www.hotrod.com/whereitbegan/hrdp_0273_lions...
The Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield is on the bucket list..

Check out www.wediditforlove.com and for UK history http://theaccelerationarchive.co.uk/

Edited by Crafty_ on Tuesday 5th November 19:02

[Conian]

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

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


Bit confused, I know it cant mean RPM or it'd be dead in a fraction of a second.
So what does 900 revolutions mean?

[driverrob]

Conian said:

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

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


Bit confused, I know it cant mean RPM or it'd be dead in a fraction of a second.
So what does 900 revolutions mean?

Exactly what it says. e.g. 6 seconds = 1/10 of a minute at, say, 9,000 rpm = 900 revolutions of the engine.

[Gixer]

Seen those stats a few times before but I still read them again just to remind myself how mind boggling the figures are. Most go and watch some Top Fuel cars again, I've not been for a couple of years.

[Oddboy86]

So slightly worse than the bomber on a run in terms of fuel?

[frayz]

Lol, Craig it makes my car look like a Prius! Haha

[Red Devil]

frayz said:

The current Top Fuel dragster
elapsed time record is 4.441 seconds for the quarter mile ( 10/05/03,
Tony Schumacher). The top speed record is 333.00 mph (533 km/h) as
measured over the last 66' of the run ( 09/28/03 Doug Kalitta).

Is this your source? - http://www.albeedigital.com/supercoupe/articles/to...

If so, the figures are wrong.

Fastest ET - Doug Kalitta 4.420 at Joliet Spring 04
http://www.draglist.com/draglist/category.php?CATE...

Top Speed - Tony Schumacher 337.58 at Brainerd 05
http://www.draglist.com/draglist/category.php?CATE...

The legendary Sammy Miller holds the outright ET record for a quarter mile on a strip.
3.583 (& 386.26) in his rocket powered funny car Vanishing Point at Santa Pod.
http://www.draglist.com/draglist/category.php?VIEW...
http://www.britishdragracinghof.co.uk/members/samm...

The all time ET record was achieved by stuntwoman Kitty O'Neill in the Mojave Desert.
3.225 at El Mirage, Palmdale CA 7-06-77 in Rocket Kat
http://www.draglist.com/draglist/category.php?VIEW...

The top speed record is held by Larry Flickinger
401.00 at Blaney SC 4-84 in Natural High
http://www.draglist.com/draglist/category.php?VIEW...

Note that Kitty actually went much faster on her ET record run but was too quick for the timers to record it!