Check this out:

* 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 dragster engine consumes 11/2 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 thedragster 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 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 US $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:

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 past the dragster at an honest 200
mph. The 'tree' goes green for both of you at that moment.

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 1320 foot long race course.

That, folks, is ACCELERATION.

Sorry so long, but thought you all would dig it.

Jason

 

I need one of those

 

That is Insane!!Thanx Can yousay Volatile man the motor gets beat up.

 

now that is pretty cool!!
Interesting facts!

Thx,
Claude

 

They finally made a dyno that could measure the power the engines make. They make 8000-9000 hp and spike to 10,000 hp when the tires hook up.

 

There is a lot of question on the accuracy of the readings they are getting. The device they use to gain this info is installed on the "trans" and attempts to measure torque through the output shaft. Many "experts" have admitted that the reading may not be very accurate.

Either way, few things in the world can compare to a fuel car making a pass.

 

They "advertise" somewhere near 6000hp not including the parasidic loss due to the charger. Some other things to note: they are limited to under 500CID and can't run more than a 90% mixture of nitromethane in their fuel. Most run near 6.0:1 compression. The superchargers are pullied to make near 50#s of boost at 9000rpm. And even though they pump all that fuel you mentioned into the engine, they're STILL having problems getting enough fuel into it. Basically it makes a fireman's hose look like a straw. And the aluminum blocks they use have no coolant passages due to strength issues.

Turbos are banned, of course. With them, and assuming they come up with a way to feed it the fuel it would require, they'd be pushing much more boost and the end result is a bomb on wheels .

Pretty cool stuff

 

Haha, not by much though (relatively speaking)

 

A sabot tank round travels 3 miles per second.

 

that bullet can do the quarter in .25 seconds if my math is right

 

Your math is not correct, 3 miles in 1 second = 1/4 mile in .083 seconds.

 

yeah.. just figured that out.. I was doing it for 1 mile.. hehe

 

I was under the impression that turbo's are not realistic due to the 7000 deg exhaust temps generated?

 

So a sabot can do in the neighborhood of 10,800 mph.

 

What's even more insane about their 1/4 mile times is that they are still limited by traction! Imagine the times if they produced the same amount of power, but didn't have to worry about breaking the tires loose.