How fast is a top fuel Dragster

**fred.n** · 16th June 2006, 02:20 PM

Damm Fast

First, some useful info:

Under full throttle, a Top Fuel dragster engine consumes 1 1/2 gallons (5.7 liters) of nitromethane per second.
A fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate with 25% less energy being produced.

One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500.
A stock Dodge 426 Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to 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 nitromethane the flame front temperature measures 7050 degrees F (3900 degrees C).
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 (760 degrees C). 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 $1,000.00 per second.
The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.441 seconds for the quarter mile (402m) (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 riding the average $250,000 Honda MotoGP bike.
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 RC211V hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line and past the dragster at an honest 200 mph (293 ft/sec) (322 km/h).
The 'tree' goes green for both of you at that moment.
The dragster launches and starts after you.
You keep your wrist cranked 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 (322 km/h) and not only caught, but nearly blasted you off the road when he passed you within a mere 1320 foot (402m) long race course.

That folks, is FAST!!!

**Stuart** · 16th June 2006, 02:32 PM

That, is some interesting sh*t.

Had to read the line about a total of 900 revolutions under load a couple of times- didn't seem to be right, but then, even at 9000 rpm, we are not talking of more than a few seconds. Unbelievable.

Arc welding strength spark plugs, near hydraulic locked cylinders. Man, these things are at the very edge of the envelope!

**bitingmidge** · 16th June 2006, 02:49 PM

I'll race you round the block then!

Oh, and I'll be on my pushbike.

You are riding the average $250,000 Honda MotoGP bike.
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 RC211V hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line and past the dragster at an honest 200 mph (293 ft/sec) (322 km/h).
The 'tree' goes green for both of you at that moment.
The dragster launches and starts after you.
You keep your wrist cranked hard, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums and within 3 seconds the dragster catches and passes you.
You brake hard before the corner at the end of the straight, as you lean through it you catch a glimpse of the lights of emergency vehicles lights in your mirror. You wonder why the dragster isn't ahead of you....

I'm not sure if Dragsters aren't the ultimate demonstration of premature ejaculation!

Cheers,

P

**Christopha** · 16th June 2006, 04:51 PM

The worlds loudest, fastest penises driven by petrolheads too thick to turn a corner! A decent circuit racer, rally driver or Kart racer has more skill..... OK, now flame me please.

**Felder** · 16th June 2006, 05:04 PM

Originally Posted by Christopha

OK, now flame me please.

Happy to oblige........

Nah - I tend to agree. Whilst the stats on the top fuel drag cars are impressive, I reckon the drivers themselves possess limited skill. The true performers in this category of motorsport are the ones who set the car up so that it travels fast enough. The driver needs quickish reflexes at the tree and then needs to hold on tight and make sure his foot doesn't slip off the accelerator. Not much steering to be done. Actually not much steering that CAN be done as the front wheels usually don't touch the ground until the 'chute is deployed at the end of the run.

I agree Christopha - rally drivers, circuit racers, etc depend more on the drivers skill than drag racing, even though the mechanics in these categories are important too.

Now slot cars - there's a level playing field!

**Wood Butcher** · 16th June 2006, 05:13 PM

Mt old Senior scout leader used to race a Fiat 128 in the local rally series (and used to win alot too) and he would not acknowledge drag racing as a motorsport. Just a bunch of blokes with too much money and no real driving skill.

**savage** · 16th June 2006, 05:37 PM

Very impressive read!...Now if we could just get that amount of horse power into our power tools!...Hmmm!..:eek:

**Dan_574** · 16th June 2006, 09:15 PM

cant go past rally drivers for driving skills.

**Robson Valley** · 8th November 2012, 05:02 AM

The driver/pilot is not expected to "drive."
Reaction time and technical skills win drag races.
I did promotional photography for drag sponsors a very long time ago.
Thanks for the updated stats.

**rwbuild** · 8th November 2012, 07:38 AM

Dragsters aka cash converters

**Cliff Rogers** · 8th November 2012, 08:29 AM

Time warp.

**crowie** · 8th November 2012, 08:34 AM

I used to work with Terry Sainty who pilots one of the Top Fuel Dragsters.
When his dad Stan was in the earlier throughs of developing the build on there engine, as Stan's workshop built the whole engine; Terry would often bring to work melted lumps of aluminium and then proceed to tell use what part of the engine it used to be.
For a small local western Sydney engineering workshop, they are darn good.
Cheers, crowie

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