Top Fuel Stuff

[Bill75]

I went to a top fuel event in Epping NH last weekend..........man what an experience!! I'd never seen them before in person, the noise they make is incredable!!! Here's a few shots with some alcohol cars too. Great fun!!

Check the camera man from the Speed Channel, I bet he has no eardrums left! This guy dropped a cyl just as he reached him at about 200 mph!

Cyl head from a top fuel funny car

 

[jrose7004]

The ground shook didn't it?

 

[Bill75]

The ground shook didn't it?

Oh yeah for sure!! Great stuff, I could feel my damn shirt moving when they went by from the stands.

 

[muddywaters]

Yeah, Television just doesn't do drag racing justice, You have to be there........

 

[geekinavette]

Yeah, Television just doesn't do drag racing justice, You have to be there........

erd:

 

[Glensgages]

..... the only people who say they don't-like Fuel-racing are those who've never SEEN it in-person.....

 

[Rowdy1]

Nobody Listens............

I've been saying that for years, ONE top fuel car has MORE HP than the first four rows in a NASCAR race. It goes on & on & on. Congrats on going in person and "feeling" the earth move.

 

[Glensgages]

I've been saying that for years, ONE top fuel car has MORE HP than the first four rows in a NASCAR race. It goes on & on & on. Congrats on going in person and "feeling" the earth move.

Gasoline is for washin'-parts, alcohol is for drinkin'.....


NITRO IS FOR RACIN' !!!!!

 

[Rowdy1]

DAMN.......

I tried to copy & paste but it didn't work so I'll put it out one finger at a time..enjoy............

• 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 1½ 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 Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to drive the dragster 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 measures 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 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.



Here's a link to more infomation from the NHRA website: NHRA Fun Facts

PS..............I was at the tracks when Schmacher & Kalitta set those records.

 

[Glensgages]

2 years-ago, Rahn Tobler said that his fuel-pumps put-out 95 gallons-per-minute at 8000 RPM:
with most city water-pressures set at 6 GPM, Tobler is saying that each cylinder at W-O-T sees the equivalent of TWO garden hoses opened-up in them.
:crazy

 

[Bill75]

Wow, lots of great stuff, Rowdy1 you must have worn a flat spot on your fingers! Thanks!!

It's incredible the fuel gpm these engines take in and burn. Like it says in your post they're right on the verge of Hydraulic lock up. I gotta make arraingements next year to go down to Englishtown NJ and watch the real big guns run.

Bill

 

[Red73BB]

Rowdy,

I love stats, and you had a bunch, thanks for to put things in perspective.
.

 

[geekinavette]

Wow Lou...that must've taken you all night! Or did the little feathered buddy do the "typing"?

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.

I witnessed this...happened to Shelly Anderson's dragster at Bandimere some years ago. It was at night, we were standing about the finish line, saw a bright flash then a couple seconds later an incredible "BOOOM!". Went up to the pits later as they were tearing the engine down...the solid copper head gaskets were a molten blob of brown....and that stuff don't melt 'til almost 2000 deg F!

They are incredible...that's fer sure!

Bill

 

[Rowdy1]

The Bird Did It For Me

Englishtown NJ & Maple Grove Pa are a MUST!!!

 

[frisk]

There´s nothing like Topfuel hehe I go every year to a race here in Sweden for the european championship. This year sadly there was a lot of rain but we did get a new european record. 4,73s!

 

[Rowdy1]

NICE!!!...............

There´s nothing like Topfuel hehe I go every year to a race here in Sweden for the european championship. This year sadly there was a lot of rain but we did get a new european record. 4,73s!

PICTURES!!!

 

[frisk]

hehe ok here´s some foto´s that i found. I find many of them realy great so you can look at these instead of my lousy pictures hehe. here´s a link to the pictures...
http://www.ziken.se/galleri2.htm

Also a friend of mine made a small movie, but he didnt get so many race sadly.

http://www.veoh.com/videos/v1054026zFRz49QF

 

[Bill75]

hehe ok here´s some foto´s that i found. I find many of them realy great so you can look at these instead of my lousy pictures hehe. here´s a link to the pictures...
http://www.ziken.se/galleri2.htm

Also a friend of mine made a small movie, but he didnt get so many race sadly.

http://www.veoh.com/videos/v1054026zFRz49QF

Nice video! Great stuff for sure, too bad you had some rain but looks like you got in some great racing.

Beautiful pictures, no wonder I can't find a hotrod around here.......you guys have them all in Sweeden. Great looking cars, I haven't finished looking at them all yet.

Thanks

 

[frisk]

I guess you all can go and see cars like this often but here in sweden we sadly only have real topfuel competitions once a year. Streetrace and stockcars more often but not TF. And what about those bikes!?!!

opss saw now that the link to the pictures didnt work well... You have to choose to the left, Bilar och Bil Race 2007, then 2007-07-28 Veidec Festival 2007

 

[Rowdy1]

Awesome..........

Thanks for that, it's all GOOD!!!. It's an addiction, trust me.