OT but cool

Acceleration explained...



For those who love numbers, engineers, speed freaks,

and those who think they have gone too fast at one time or another.



This puts Corvette performance in perspective; and

this article mentions Lingenfelter twin turbo powered Z06.



Read this thru slowly and try to comprehend the amount of force

produced in just under 4 seconds! The last paragraph puts it all into perspective !



There are no rockets or airplanes built by any government in the world

that can accelerate from a standing start as fast as a Top Fuel Dragster or Funny Car;

and that includes any aircraft launched by a catapult from an aircraft carrier.



Nothing can compare...







DEFINITION OF ACCELERATION...



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 (0.15) of a second for all 6,000+ horsepower

(some believe 8,000 HP is more realistic - there are no dynamometers

capable of measuring) 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. (Oxy-acetylene on "cut" is 6,300)



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 one 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 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 instant.



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!
 
That"s cool.

I was somewhat of a speed freak in my "second" childhood. Luckily, I survived it and have grown up (again).
 

Been a race fan since before my teen years(I'm 71) And I mean any form of motor sport. Top fuel and funny cars are the fiercest race cars going. Even if a person dosen't care for raceing but knows anything at all about things mechinical he must appreciate what it takes to lay down those numbers.
 
Used to be quite a drag racing fan, didn't live far from the National Trail Raceway in Hebron and attended quite a few of the early NHRA Spring Nationals in the early 70s. Interesting that the speed record is held there, they used to have to put a couple of nets up at the end of the track to catch the car if they couldn't get stopped. The track dead ended into a road! I recall a few times that top fuelers had brake and/or parachute failures and had to get stopped by the nets, really messes up the car. Most speeds were slow (relatively of course) since they would get on the brakes and pop the chute right at the finish line to stay out of the nets. I understand now when they have pro events they close the road off and have extended the track beyond the road.
 
That's the coolest thing I've read in a long time - thanks for posting.

To bring it back to tractors, I'd guess the quarter mile speed of a farmall M would be pretty close to 1 minute even...

... somebody MUST have tried this.
 
Hard to beleive that power. Kinda makes my post above Exceeding the posted speed limit sound kinda LAME. Rocko.
 
Thats a very good perspective of the amount of power a top fueler has,especially the comparison with the vette!! I was thru the Don Garlitts drag race museum in I think Ocalla Florda... Check it out if you get close,its worth it,really cool...
And they say rodeo is the worlds most dangerous sport,its got nothing on drag racing!!!!
 
Apprx revolutions of 540 RPM's I would not call apprx. In Theory yes due to the time elapsed from light to light. Say they turning 8K RPM's they complete the 1/4 mile in 30 seconds makes it 4k RPM's, in 15 seconds 2k RPM's, 7.5 seconds 1k RPM's 3.25 seconds 5k RPM's. This is by theory on paper, this doesn't take in wheel slippage. But by the sound of those engines any one can tell they turn way over 540 RPM's. Hell they're idling at about 2,000.
 
W_B

I too lived next to National Trail Raceway. Just to the east next to the airport. I could see the track from my window and would count the seconds when the T/F cars ran and could tell a good run from a bad one. My brother used to run S/G class and would stay with me during the Spring Nationals. We were close enough to walk to the strip. My driveway was .9 miles from his pit area by road. Local residents got free passes for the Spring Nationals. Still was not worth the aggravation of the traffic and campers Next to my house.

Gene
 
I think you're confusing "revolutions per minute" with "revolutions"

Following your example:

8000 revolutions per minute means the engine revolves 8000 times in a minute.

Or 4000 times in 30 seconds.
2000 times in 15 seconds.

So if it's reving at 8000 revolutions per minute. In the course of one 1/4mile run of say 4 seconds - then engine has only had time to spin about 500 times.
 
It used to be fun, not anymore.
The NHRA threw away 50 years of tradition when they went to a 1000 ft. track for Top Fuel and Funny Cars.

They also employ a 'Race to the Chase' points system, like NASCAR. I won't follow either one anymore. It just isn't fair that someone could win a dozen events and not be the champion.
k
 
I lived at the Lake (North Bank) so wasn't far away either. I used to work for Bill Ours alot & manned the wreckers at the Spring Nationals too. wife & I both graduated from Lakewood in 66. Long time ago Keith
 
YEp they is twice as fast now as they use to be . Only was in a rail ft engine one time and did a 8.5 quarter . WAY To fast for me and i thought i was flyen at 11.56 . They have come a long way from when i first went down the track in 63 .
 

I don't think they had much choice in making the track shorter..
They are running over 330MPH at 1,000 ft now..

Those drag Slicks might not take running 400 MPH..!!

NOW, when it comes to NASCAR..WHY won't they build a larger track and LET those boys RUN (without restrictor plates)..????

Ron..
 
Thanks for posting, I went to school with a girl who's father raced funny cars inNHRA, they lived around the corner from us, about 13 years ago they hired us to cut there lawn, one day Bob was there, and showed us his car, shop, ect, it was pretty neat, I remember a stack of crane cam new in the box stacked up on the bench like cordwood! Lol, he moved to Florida, than retired from driving. I think he still owns a camp on the lake near hear.
 

How about that! I used to go to National Trail when I was stationed at Lockbourn in the mid '60s. Some good close drag races took place there.
 
I had never really thought about the physics involved. The wonder is that every engine doesn't blow apart about a third of the way down the track. Those hemi's must be some kind of hefty- never seen the business end of one.
 
(quoted from post at 08:15:56 01/11/13) Thats a very good perspective of the amount of power a top fueler has,especially the comparison with the vette!! I was thru the Don Garlitts drag race museum in I think Ocalla Florda... Check it out if you get close,its worth it,really cool...
And they say rodeo is the worlds most dangerous sport,its got nothing on drag racing!!!!

I went through the Garlits museum myself.There is some drag raceing history there. Even some handbills for coming events that I went to. Highly recomend putting the museum on your itinary if you are in the area.
 
imagine that times 2 or 4! this is what i like, mean, rotten and nasty, has 2 keith black hemies im pretty sure, some of these guys have 4 of them, and a couple guys use allison aircraft engines!
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Keith;

Were you manning the wrecker during the flood of 1991? I was the guy on the Case tractor pulling out trucks and trailers!!! Water up to the fan in places.

Gene
 
I've seen so-called hot rod pulling tactors with as many as 5 big block automotive engines, Allison aircraft engines, Continental tank engines, etc., but all burn gasoline not nitro methane.

It's an entirely different world.

Dean
 
Amazing!
I lived in Gainesville, FL about 10 miles from the Gator Nationals track, and at night you could hear the dragsters run.
Kenny Bernstien once came into the bar that I was a bouncer at. He was a friendly guy, and didn"t seem to mind all of the attention.
 
(quoted from post at 10:12:16 01/11/13) That's the coolest thing I've read in a long time - thanks for posting.

To bring it back to tractors, I'd guess the quarter mile speed of a farmall M would be pretty close to 1 minute even...

... somebody MUST have tried this.

I'm guessing you're pretty darn close. If the 'ol M hits 16MPH it would take about 55 seconds from a rolling 16MPH start. How long it takes the 'ol M to get up to speed is what?...10 seconds?...= 65 seconds? maybe?? LOL
 
(quoted from post at 12:09:08 01/11/13) YEp they is twice as fast now as they use to be . Only was in a rail ft engine one time and did a 8.5 quarter . WAY To fast for me and i thought i was flyen at 11.56 . They have come a long way from when i first went down the track in 63 .

Yep, in 1962 I went to the 8th Annual NHRA event at INDY, I was 20. Jack Chrisman beat Don Garlits in the final round of AA/Dragster. The equivalent of todays Top Fueler. Chrisman won with an ET of 8.76 at 171.75 mph. A new national record was set shortly after by Garlits in a Connie Kalitta dragster at 180 MPH.

In 1976 I set the National Record for a B/Gas Kawasaki Motorcycle at 9.42 ET 140 MPH in Fremont CA. An equivalent to that bike today is the Pro Stock Motorcycles running NHRA events. 6.80 ET at 190 + MPH. They said years ago, it was impossible to go faster than 200 MPH in the quarter mile.
 
Yes, nitro is an entirely different situation that makes the hot rod tractors sound pretty mild. When they touch off the dragsters it just about knocks you right off your feet. It's hard to believe that any engine can be that loud. I've stood at about the 1000 ft mark watching them go down the quarter mile and all you see is a distortion of the air around the starting line and they actually are way down the track before the sound even gets there. They go by so fast it's downright scary.
 
(quoted from post at 03:29:58 01/12/13) Yes, nitro is an entirely different situation that makes the hot rod tractors sound pretty mild. When they touch off the dragsters it just about knocks you right off your feet. It's hard to believe that any engine can be that loud. I've stood at about the 1000 ft mark watching them go down the quarter mile and all you see is a distortion of the air around the starting line and they actually are way down the track before the sound even gets there. They go by so fast it's downright scary.

If you're a fan and not a participant, that's part of the rush of drag racing. Standing up near the starting line when a fueler hits the throttle is just...heart stopping. Today...you need ear plugs, but the smell of the nitro, and the feel of actual ground pounding horsepower...Wow! And of course there is always the possibility of aluminum and carbon fiber flying through the air, like a bomb just went off!!
 

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