Definition of 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 4 rows at
the Daytona 500.
* 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.

* A stock Dodge 426 Hemi V8 engine cannot produce
enough power to drive
the dragster's 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
nitro methane the
flame front temperature measures 7050 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 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 9500 rpm.

* 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 $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 1320 foot long race course.

That, folks, is acceleration

 

That was some really cool reading.

 

 

My brain hurts now thats painful to think about

 

Now I want to drive one.

 

the 5 disk clutch pack welds itself together locking the floater plates to the disks and there is no way to stop it without killing the engine, killing the fuel is the only way to kill the engine, killing the air dosent do any good when your force feeding the engine with a back set hi-helix blower and the cylinder temps they have, wanna know what the juice from a magneto feels like JUST from turning the drive over by hand, enough to make your arm go numb. not when its running, just rolling it over once by hand, its like getting hit with an electric fence shocker. the blocks are alot stronger now and alot harder to blow in half now that they have went to forged blocks, the cast blocks would shatter in most cases, we had one of John Forces blocks up at school, most of the windowed blocks get welded up and reused, the inside of those blocks looks like a bomb went off, imagine dumping a hand full of nuts and bolts into a blender. we would do all of Del Worshams block welding and rough machining up at school, plus we would reuse alot of the top fuel parts they wouldnt use to build 2500 horse 2wd blower pulling truck motors.

 

i call shot gun!LOL

 

and I thought the CTD was fast......