Acceleration.

[TheNOBBLER[RL]]

A Lesson in Acceleration

 

First, some useful info:

 

* 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 Top Fuel dragster engine consumes 11/2 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 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 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 1/2

way, the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust

valves at 1400 degrees F. Cutting the fuel flow can only shut down the

engine.

 

* 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 suhe redline 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 (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 US$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).

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 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.

[Des]

How did you get the stats of my seca. :y:

[TheNOBBLER[RL]]

:y:

 

Was wondering who would say that first!

[smacko84]

:P :y: ;) lol thats gold.....those stats are unbelievable!

[MRMOPARMAN]

an oldie but a goodie.. i copied and pasted it this time!

[styler]

theres some food for thought! awesome to say the least!

[camerondownunder88]

* Under full throttle, a Top Fuel dragster engine consumes 11/2 gallons

of nitro methane per second; a fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the

same rate with 25% less energy being produced.

 

I always find this quote hard to belive but here goes my view..lol

 

How much power does the 747's Pratt & Whitney engine produce? Well a Boeing 747-200 cruising at Mach 0.9 at 40,000 ft (12,190 m). The aircraft's engines produce 55,145 lb (245,295 N) of thrust, only a quarter of its rated static thrust, to cruise at a velocity of 871 ft/s (265 m/s). So using some basic equations we calculate the power generated by the 747 to be 87,325 hp (65,100 kW). And I belive a top fuel dragster can't make 87,325 shaft HP off the line..lol

 

 

Cameron

[towe001]

There was a write-up of one in Street Machine some time back and judging by the pictures they had of it, its not small. They had one of the crew standing at the back of it and if he reached up he'd be able to touch the bottom of the wing.

[trd]

how fast would it accerate if it was 4.W.D? :y:

 

heres a stat for ya: its not the speed that kills ya its, the sudden stop :P

[Des]

how fast would it accerate if it was 4.W.D? :y:

 

heres a stat for ya: its not the speed that kills ya its, the sudden stop :P

I think if it was 4wd the front wheels would just spin cause there would be no weight on them ?

;)

[love ke70]

5K POWAH!

[philba]

Top Fuelers make approx 7000 HP. And you really can't compare a jet to a drag car as one uses thrust and the other uses traction, they are in completly different categories. Well, at least I think they are

[camerondownunder88]

Yes jets run on thrust same as rockets so you can't really compare them well.

But if you were to hook up a axle to a JET main shaft it would make a shit load more power depending on the size of GT.

 

My small jet engine I have at home has a intake of 97mm and creates 80HP on the power take off shaft (one used to drive the wheels) and on the main engine shaft it uses over 200HP to drive the comprressor at full bore so my small ass GT which chews 78 Litres of air a second makes nearly 300HP and mine in the jet world is considered a micro turbine cause of its size so a full scale jet shaft driving a car would give a top fuel drag car a run for its money in power ratings but the top fuel might just still get it down the strip as jets do need to spool up etc.

 

cameron

[irokin]

Jet dragsters are quick but not quite as quick. They stage on full thrust and hit the afterburner to launch. Ive stood 5 meters from the jet pipe of one on full thrust...mmm toasty.

 

Yes jets make massive shaft horsepower, but AFAIK bugger all torque. The reason the HP is so high is because of the massive shaft speeds (compared to automotive engines). e.g. A Rolls-Royce AE2100 makes about 4600 shaft horsepower at lets say 30,000rpm (I can't find exact speed figures). That works out to just 805lb.ft of torque. An automotive engine of the same power would be making something like 2400lb.ft of torque @ 10,000rpm.

 

My calcs are probably far from perfect but you get the general idea.

[Des]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_turbine_engine