>DEFINITION OF ACCELERATION
>
>One top fuel dragster 500 cubic-inch Hemi engine makes
>more horsepower than
>the first 4 rows of stock cars at the Daytona 500 It
>takes just 15/100ths
>of a second for all 6,000+ horsepower of an NHRA Top
>Fuel dragster engine to
>reach the rear wheels. Under full throttle, a dragster
>engine consumes 1-1/2
>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 drive the
>dragster's supercharger.
>
>With 3,000 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 (stoichiometry: methodology and
>technology by which
>quantities of reactants and products in chemical
>reactions are determined)
>1.7:1 air/fuel mixture of nitro methane, the flame
>front temperature
>measures 7,050 deg. 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 halfway,
>the engine is dieseling from compression, plus the
>glow of exhaust valves at
>1,400 deg 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 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 redline is actually quite high at 9,500 rpm.
>Assuming all the
>equipment is paid for, the crew worked for free, and
>for once NOTHING BLOWS
>UP, each run costs an estimate $1,000.00 per second.
>The current top fuel
>dragster elapsed time record is 4.428 seconds for the
>quarter mile
>(11/12/06, Tony Schumacher, at Pomona, CA ). The top
>speed record is 336.15
>mph as measured over the last 66' of the run (05/25/05
>Tony Schumacher, at
>Hebron, OH). 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 pass 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 1,320 foot long race course. ...... and
>that my friend, is
>ACCELERATION!

 

This has been discussed before and there are a few flaws in it. Starting with the Mags don't put out 44 amps to a single plug. Still an interesting read.

 

The record is also sub 4 seconds also. The 4.5 you posted is "slow". I've seen them run sub 4's in Denver.

 

you were probably seeing them only race 1000' also.

 

 

Actually Schumacher holds the record for TFD in 1320' (4.42) and 1000' (3.77).

 

right, thats what was posted in the original post. i was saying that the sub 4's he seen was only 1000'

 

Oh, really?

 

sorry i dont log every post on here fo years i got this on my phone wnted to share, it was a great read, until it was analyzed by all these scientists here i dont cre it sounds like true ol hardcore drag racer wrote it.