Don't know if this has been here before or not. I am just posting it as I got is so I cannot vouch for the factuality of it either.

* 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 1-1/2 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 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 (stoichiometry: methodology and
technology by which quantities of reactants and products in chemical reactions are
determined) 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 ½ 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 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 9500rpm.

* 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 $1,000.00 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.

Those are some pretty cool facts.

They are awesome machines, 0-100mph in 0.8 seconds and 60 feet travelled.

Baz and I like to be as close as possible, (about 10 feet away) when the motors are started and warmed up in the pits. There's nothing like being shaken to bits by the thunderous noise and gassed by the exhaust.

That's a mind blowing information!!

I thought it appropriate to use the fast reply button for this post. lol.
Great post O.C. Saved it to my personal folder. I love the rails, funny cars and Pro Stock. Great event. Blink and you miss them.

neat "facts", but some of them are wrong.

Nitro does NOT burn yellow. It burns clear. I work with this stuff just about every weekend. Ask me how I found out it burns clear?

44 amps is not the current of an arc welder..... unless they're only welding tin cans together.

Cheers, thats been posted a few times around the 'net, still an amazing read.


gonna be a few months till my next nitro fix though

OK, how did you find out it burns clear? <Envisions a life threatening situation had ensued>

Reckon he/she learned the hard way by having his/her eyebrow and hair singed!!

Hmm, a 747 makes about 200.000 HP...That's pretty extreme for a car.

It's around 120MW of power...With an engine efficiency of 0.25 that should propel the car with an acceleration of 25G's...Hm, only off by a factor of 3 to 5...

The nitro motors being run in the UK & Europe make in the region of 6000bhp, the Americans would be well above that.

That's a lot of tire shredding power. Holy cow. Granny could pull up a few stumps with that. I wonder what amount of torque they are putting out?

Hmm, if I knew the gear ratios I could work it out. Trouble is they don't use a gearbox but a progressive clutch that doesn't lock up until they are past halfway down the track, so the effective ratio is constantly changing. Suffice to say it's a shedload of torque!

I've read that two dragsters launching together has been measured at 2.7 on the Richter scale. It sure feels like it.

Are you talking rails or Funny Cars??? lol. Not that it makes a difference at all. Ha ha ha. Thanks for the info Gaz.

They both use the same motors and transmissions, but the Funny Cars are harder to drive.

I'm sure John Force would agree. Had a few pile ups, he has.

At least in the rails you're sitting infront of the explosion when the motor lets go.

Bloody rights on that score. Nothing like getting a face full of flames at over 300 MPH.

Watching from behind the lanes you can see the Funny Cars snaking down the track, looks like a hairy ride.

I think the most I would be tempted ever to pilot would be a Pro Stock, even those are viciously fast.

either that or pro mod the_burner, pro mods look really pretty as well.

Hmmm, would I have a go in a Top Fueller? Damn straight! I'd prefer a dragster to a Funny Car though.

No way would you get me on a Top Fuel bike though, that's a bit too hairy for TGM, yessiree.