Subject: acceleration!
First, some useful info:
*One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more
horsepower than the
first 4 rows at the Daytona 500.
*Under full throttle, a Top Fuel dragster engine consumes 1 1/2
gallons of
nitromethane 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 nitromethane the
flame
front temperature measure 7050 degrees F.
*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.
*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 mph 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 red-line 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 per second. The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record
is 4.441
seconds for the quarter mile (10/5/03, Tony Schumacher.) The top
speed record is
333.00 mph (533 km/h) as measured over the last 66' of the run
(9/28/03 Doug
Kalitta.)
Putting all this into perspective:
You are riding the average $250,000 Honda Moto GP 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 the throttle hard open, 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.
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!
" If it can be done by people with little or no talent, I have both."
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jun 01 2004 - 10:59:13 EDT