acceleration

[Erik Halvorson]

I am not a huge fan of drag racing but if all the figures stated below are true....

 

ACCELERATION
 
 'DEFINITION OF ACCELERATION' (courtesy of KB Performance
 Pistons): 
 
 
 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 off, the crew is working
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!

 		 	   		  
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