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Acceleration Put Into Perspective


daniel3507

Well-Known Member
TRS Banner 2010-2011
Joined
Dec 15, 2008
Messages
3,994
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Vehicle Year
2019
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read this on another forum im on and thought it was pretty cool.

ACCELERATION PUT INTO PERSPECTIVE

* One Top Fuel dragster outfitted with a 500 cubic-inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower (8,000 HP) than the first
4 rows at NASCAR's Daytona 500...

* Under full throttle, a dragster engine will consume 11.2 gallons of nitro methane per second; a fully loaded Boeing
747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate but with 25% less energy being produced.

* A stock Dodge Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to merely drive the dragster's supercharger. (Note: the new Chrysler Hemi is not a true hemi. It is only a "Hemi" because Chrysler has the trademark on the name and chooses to call this engine a "Hemi")

* 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 lockup 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 sparkplug, which is typically the output of an electric arc welder in each cylinder.

* Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass.

*After 1/2 way thru the run, the engine is 'dieseling' from compression and the glow of the 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 enough force sufficient to blow the cylinder heads off the block in pieces or split the block in half!!

* Top fuel dragsters reach over 300 MPH +... before you have completed reading this sentence.

* In order to exceed 300 MPH in 4.5 seconds, a dragster must accelerate an average of over 4 G's. In order to reach 200 MPH well before reaching half-track, at launch the acceleration approaches 8 G's.

* Top Fuel engines turn approximately 675 revolutions from light to light!

* Including the burnout, the engine must only survive 9000 revolutions under load.

* The red line is actually quite high at 9500 RPM.

* THE BOTTOM LINE: Assuming all the equipment is paid for, the pit crew is working for free, & NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run will cost an estimated $1000 per second.

0 to 100 MPH in .8 seconds (the first 60 feet of the run)

0 to 200 MPH in 2.2 seconds (the first 350 feet of the run)

6 g-forces at the starting line (nothing accelerates faster on land)

6 negative g-forces upon deployment of twin 'chutes at
300 MPH

An NHRA Top Fuel Dragster accelerates quicker than any other land vehicle on earth. . Quicker than a jet fighter plane.... quicker than the space shuttle.... or snapping your fingers!!

The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.420 seconds for the quarter-mile (2004, Doug Kalitta). The top speed record is 337.58 MPH as measured over the last 66' of the run (2005, Tony Schumacher).

So, in summary... Let's now put this all into perspective: Imagine this.... You are driving a new $140,000 Lingenfelter twin-turbo powered Corvette Z-06. Over a mile up the road, a Top Fuel dragster is staged & ready to 'launch' down a quarter-mile strip as you pass. You have the advantage of a flying start. You run the 'Vette hard, on 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 exact moment. The dragster departs & starts after you. You keep your foot buried hard to the floor, and suddenly you hear an incredibly brutally screaming whine that sears and pummels your eardrums & within a mere 3 seconds the dragster effortlessly catches & 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 it not only caught, but nearly blasted you off the planet when he passed you within a mere 1320 foot long race !!!!

That my friend..... is acceleration!
 
and yet chuck norris can still out run one.
 
holy crap...



no idea That singel engine comsumed about as much fuel as a boeing 747....or that a boeing 747 even used almost 12 gallons per second!!!

another thing, im not sure if this is correct, but 44 AMPS to each sparkplug? i know you can get hit by a typical engines spark will no ill effects, but if you get hit even once with that kind of amperage, your done!!!
 
another outragous fuel comsuption fact... the biggest I/C engine powered ocean liner comsumes 55 barrels of fuel oil per mile. and has an inline 14 cylinder engine. and uses a catipilar v12 engine to simply turn it over to start it,
 
I need a cigarette after reading that!
I had a poster as a kid of Don Garlets in his rail on the flight deck of a carrier with the guy giving him the ok for take off...............I wish i could find that poster!
Great post Daniel!
 
holy crap...



no idea That singel engine comsumed about as much fuel as a boeing 747....or that a boeing 747 even used almost 12 gallons per second!!!

another thing, im not sure if this is correct, but 44 AMPS to each sparkplug? i know you can get hit by a typical engines spark will no ill effects, but if you get hit even once with that kind of amperage, your done!!!

They run 2 Vertex magnetos.A friend ran one on his 1/8 mile car.........Gapped the plugs at .075 or it would burn the tip off.
 
Yeah I read this with my jaw dropped and knew everyone here would appreciate it
 
In the immortal words of the great American hero Ricky Bobby "I want to go fast."
 
The SMALL engines that a 747 can be equipped with produce 46,500lbs of thrust.
(the more powerful engines are over 50,000lb-thrust)

A crusing speed those engines are producing approx 85,000hp
while throttled back to about 25% power.
That means at cruising speed EACH of those engines is producing
about 2-1/2 times what the top fuel engine is capable of producing

At take-off power those engines EACH product TEN TIMES what the
top fuel engine can produce...

AD
 
I'll add a little trivia.

Gasoline burns from the spark plug out, similar to lighting a sheet of paper in one corner and watching it spread across the sheet. The oxygen content of Nitromethane allows it to combust with much less atmospheric oxygen compared to hydrocarbon based fuel, it actually detonates, producing higher energy than TNT. You can feel the percussion from each individual cylinder at some distance. (I always wear double hearing protection at drag races and still can feel the percussion on the water content in my body.)

The magnetos produce a magnetic field strong enough to preclude shooting starting line action with standard magnetic media devices. Photographers either use film or heavily shielded video cameras, set as far away as possible. You'll see momentary image breakup during starts on network coverage.

Each custom built engine has approximately 3 minutes of run time before an entire rebuild is needed. I'm including idle time in those 3 minutes, not just full throttle. Not sure how long current short blocks last before the scrap heap.

Now concerning the last part, and this came from a friend about the dragster beating the corvett:

Let's take the worst case senario: The "twin turbo Z06" travels at 200mph and can't accelerate at all past this speed at all.

At 200mph, it takes you 18 seconds to travel a mile (60 x 60 / 200)

That means, it takes you 4.5 seconds to travel a quarter mile (18 / 4)

Assuming the driver of the dragster's reaction time is ZERO (instead of launches and starts after you), and assuming he's equalling Doug Kalitta's record setting 4.420 run, he's only going to pass you at 0.080 seconds before the end of the track.

If he has a typical reaction time or the corvette is actually accelerating like it would or he doesn't have the record setting run, the corvette will hit the quarter mile first.
 
Forgot to put it into perspetive! LOL!

If that was me driving that corvett, I would shiit my pants as soon as I heard the top fueler rev up and hit the brakes! :shok:

So it would beat me to the end of the track!:icon_rofl:
 

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