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Da-gum them cars are fast...
Went to the gator nationals this weekend. It was fun, if not really loud. I learned a few things.
The Top Fuel Cars accelerate with more Gs than the space shuttle.
They can run a quarter mile in 4.5 seconds or less.
They hit speeds of 330 mph and up.
They shake the ground when the take off.
The rubber in the air gets all over you.
You dont need ear plugs, "you just stick yo fangers en your ears"
It was fun, but there werent any BMWs to be found, oh well.
I did miss the guy who jumps out of a plane with a flag parachute. Oh darn.
| | Reply » Da-gum them cars are fast... |
The NHRA makes its way up to Seattle once a year and we go then.
Did you know that the exhaust coming out of the headers of a Top Fuel or Funny Car machine provides ~1200 lbs of downforce? It does.
This is the only automotive event (besides Monster Truck races at a domed stadium) where you could feel the exhaust pressure in your chest as the car went by.
Top Fuel and Funny car motors make ~5,000 - 6,000 hp! Yes, 625-750 hp per cylinder! and when they drop a cylinder (which they seem to do with regularity) raw fuel comes belching out of that pipe like white fog.
If you've never been to an NHRA national event, consider going. The culture is quite different than sports cars or Club racing, but it is a total hoot
 . Much more NASCAR than F1, but probably the most visceral automotive spectating on the planet.
| | Reply » Da-gum them cars are fast... |
You'd go to the Gator Nationals, but you wouldn't go with me to the Daytona 500  .
Oh well  .
Juker008
| | Reply » Da-gum them cars are fast... |
Quote: You'd go to the Gator Nationals, but you wouldn't go with me to the Daytona 500 .
Oh well .
Juker008 | Well that one is way too simple to explain..he went to gatornationals with me because, duh, he likes me better! 
...and yes, he went with me, not me with him...surprising huh? 
| | Reply » Da-gum them cars are fast... |
Quote: Well that one is way too simple to explain..he went to gatornationals with me because, duh, he likes me better!
...and yes, he went with me, not me with him...surprising huh? |   .
Juker008
| | Reply » Da-gum them cars are fast... |
Being a long time drag racer (some of you know about my '57 Bel Air), I've attended several national events thru the years and like JimR, never miss spectating the show in Seattle. Regarding the NHRA Top Fuel dragster, here are some stats and facts I've gathered from various sources that you'll find hard to comprehend ... Enjoy!
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NHRA's Top Fuel Dragster
They hit 100 mph in less than one second and in less than three car lengths!
They hit over 260 mph at the 1/8th mile marker in just over three seconds.
The current Top Fuel record is 4.441 seconds at 334.65 mph to cover the quarter mile from a dead stop to the finish line. Therefore, you could cross the starting line at 200 mph in your McLaren F1 and the record holding Top Fuel dragster FROM A DEAD STOP would beat you to the finish line!
To exceed 300mph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must accelerate at an average of over 4G's. But in reaching 200 mph well before 1/2 track, launch acceleration is closer to 8G's.
One dragster's 500-inch Hemi makes more horsepower then the first 8 rows at Daytona
Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1 1/2 gallons of nitro per second, the same rate of fuel consumption as a fully loaded 747 but with 4 times the energy volume.
The supercharger takes more power to drive then a stock hemi makes.
At an average 8000 rpm (revs are instantaneous at launch), the crank only turns 600 revs during a 4.5 second pass.
Even with nearly 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into nearly-solid form before ignition. Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock.
Dual magnetos apply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder.
At stoichiometric (exact) 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture (for nitro), the flame front of nitro methane 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.
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. The engine can only be shut down by cutting of its fuel flow.
If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in those cylinders and then explodes with a force that can blow cylinder heads off the block in pieces or blow the block in half.
Dragsters twist the crank (torsionally) so far (20 degrees in the big end of the track) that sometimes cam lobes are ground offset from front to rear to re-phase the valve timing somewhere closer to synchronization with the pistons.
If all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs $1000.00 per second.
Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have read this sentence.
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Pretty amazing, huh? And these cars are NOT unlimited in what they can do. They have limits on such items as their nitro percentage mix (recently reduced in '04), final drive gearing and no more than 500 cubic inch max engine displacement. NHRA says horsepower figures are approaching 8000! 
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Da-gum them cars are fast...