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---
title: Dragsters
date: 20191112T102313
---
Top fuel dragsters, they're insanely powerful.
Some quick facts you can find through Google.
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 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 merely 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.
Dragsters reach over 300 MPH before you have completed reading this sentence.
In order to exceed 300 MPH in 4.5 seconds, dragsters must accelerate an average
of over 4 G’s. In order to reach 200 MPH well before half-track, the launch
acceleration approaches 8 G’s.
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 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 this all into perspective:
Lets say the 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 by it. 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. Just
as you pass the Top Fuel Dragster the ‘tree’ goes green for both of you. 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.
And here's a video of a fuel pump from a dragster running. Keep in mind there
are EIGHT of these! http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xGTbQuhhluY
/u/rmbarrett found the original source of this copypasta
_Weblinks:_
[Top Fuel Dragster Fuel Pump Demo single cylinder](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGTbQuhhluY);
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