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One
Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more
horsepower than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500.
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Under
full throttle, a Top Fuel dragster engine consumes 1½
gallons of nitro methane per second; a fully loaded 747
consumes jet fuel at the same rate with 25% less energy
being produced. |
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A
stock Dodge 426 Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power
to drive the dragster's supercharger. |
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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. |
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At
the stoichiometric 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitro
methane the flame front temperature measures 7050 degrees
F. |
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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. |
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Dual
magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the
output of an arc welder in each cylinder. |
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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. Only cutting the fuel
flow can shut down the engine. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have
completed reading this sentence. |
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Top
Fuel Engines turn only approximately 540 revolutions from light
to light! |
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Including the burnout, the engine must survive 900 only
revolutions under max load. |
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The
redline is actually quite high at 9500 rpm. |
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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 (Oct 5th 2003, Tony Schumacher). The top
speed record is 333.00 mph (533 km/h) as measured over the
last 66' of the run (Sept 28 2003 Doug Kalitta).
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Putting all of this into perspective:
You are riding the average US$250,000 Honda MotoGP bike.
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 RC211V
hard up through the gears and blast across the starting
line and past the dragster at an honest 200 mph (293
ft/sec). The 'tree' goes green for both of you at that
moment. The dragster launches and starts after you. You
keep your wrist cranked 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 your 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. |
