Lesson in Acceleration
Thought you guys might be interested in this if you hadn't seen it already.

A Lesson in Acceleration - first, some useful info:

* One NHRA Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than all the cars in the first four rows at the Daytona 500.

* Under full throttle, a Top Fuel dragster engine consumes 1 gallon of nitro methane per second; a fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate, but
with 25% less energy being produced.

* A stock Dodge 426 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 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitro methane the flame
front temperature measures 7,050 degrees 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 1/2 way,
the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust valves at
1,400 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 (most reach over 260 mph by half track).

* 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 rpm redline is actually quite high at 9,500 rpm.

* The Bottom Line; assuming all the equipment is funded, the crew works
for free, and if, for once, NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated
$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 for you bikers: You are riding the
average $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 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 (just three city blocks in length).

That folks is acceleration!

 

Wow, that was a very interesting read. Now my car feels slow, but at least durable and cheaper to run!!!

 

Oh one fact that is very important that was left out, a top fuel dragster as the Crossfire do not have a dual cup holder! So see we truly do have a racing machine!