>From the alt.hi-po.mopars newsgroup...
-One Dragster's 500-inch (Chrysler) Hemi engine makes more horsepower then
the first 8 rows at Daytona.
-Top Fuel Engines ONLY turn 540 revolutions from light to light!
-Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1 1/2 gallons of nitro PER
SECOND, the same rate of fuel consumption as a fully loaded 747, but with 4
times the energy volume.
-The supercharger takes more power to drive then a stock hemi makes
-Even with nearly 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on
overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into nearly-solid form before
ignition. Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock.
-Dual Magnetos apply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an
arc welder in each cylinder.
-At stoichiometric(exact)1.7:1 air/fuel mixture(for nitro), the flame front
of nitromethane measures 7050ºF.
-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.
-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
1400ºF. The engine can only be shut down by cutting of it's fuel flow.
-If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in
those cylinders and then explodes with a force that can blow cylinder heads
off the block in pieces, or blow the block in 1/2.
-Dragsters twist the crank(torsionally)so far(20º in the big end of the
track) that sometimes cam lobes are ground offset from front to rear to
re-phase the valve timing somewhere closer to synchronization with the
pistons.
-To exceed 300mph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must accelerate at an average of
over 4Gs. But in reaching 200mph well before 1/2 track, launch acceleration
is closer to 8Gs.
-Drivers shut off before the finish line, or even dual parachutes will not
stop the car.
-If all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once
NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs $1000.00 per second.
-Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have read this sentence.
-- Remove .your.underwear to reply --
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:02:22 EDT