Top Fuel Dragster Info

I can't verify this information, but it all sounds very realistic when you think about it.
Either way its a good read :)


1. One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500.

2. Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1-1/2 gallons of nitromethane per second; a fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate with 25% less energy being produced.

3. A stock Dodge Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to drive the dragster supercharger.

4. 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.

5. 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 for nitromethane the flame front temperature measures 7050 degrees F.

6. 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.

7. Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder.

8. Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After ½ 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 the fuel flow.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have completed reading this sentence.

12. Top Fuel Engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light!

13. Including the burnout the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load.

14. The redline is actually quite high at 9500rpm.

15. 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.

16. The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.441 seconds for the quarter mile (10/05/03, Tony Schumacher).

17. 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 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 past 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 1320 foot long race course.

That is awesome acceleration !!!
:cool:

man i love these kind of fun facts:):):):):):)

Hehe, a stock Hemi can't make the power required to drive the blower...

All simply amazing and the ammount of time that is put into these cars just to do 400 metres is amazing:)

One of our local magaizines did somthing similar on the Victor Brey door smlammer if you lot want to hear it.

would that have been street machine?

yeah on victor brays top door slammer (happens to be the fastest in the world) it makes
power 3000 hp or 2238kw and as they put it in the mag the same as 10 SS holden commadores
torque 2200 ft/lb or 2983Nm about the same as 7 BA XR6Ts
velocity 245mph or 394 km/h enough to send you in jail (thats the american spelling in an australian magizine) for 300 years
weight 2700lb or 1225 kg about the same as a mazda 323
wing down force 1200lb or 544.8kg or about as heavey as 4 victa brays
blower boost 52psi or 3.5 bar the same as 9 xr6ts
wheel base 115inches or 2921mm about 100mm more then a ba falcon
and yes fpv it was street machine

shit, 52 psi from a turbo or centrifugal supercharger would be great, but getting it from a roots/screw type is amazing considering they usually only make about 6-12 psi

Well rember this isnt no street motor having that much boost would be impossible top drive on the road (unless you were in a truck but thats going off subject now) anything with that much boost on the road would be beyond practical.

well the whole concept about a roots blower, is since theyre a positive displacement supercharger unlike a centrifugal supercharger, they make maximum boost from the word go, but they only produce about 6-12 maximum. for them to be getting 52psi is a real feat.

top fuel cars are pretty crazy, they have so much power that there isn't a dyno that can handle the power produced by a top fuel engine. power is estimated at 5000-7000 hp!!!!!

and the top fueler goes 330+mph

please dont revive dead threas MOPAR the last post was in 2004!

[QUOTE=Jakg]please dont revive dead threas MOPAR the last post was in 2004![/QUOTE]

i don't know.

i've never seen this before and found it very interesting. especially the bit about how dragster engines only have to make a max of 900 revs!

i think if someone finds an interesting thread from while back then they should be free to comment thenh everyone else who hasn't seen it can.

[QUOTE=derekthetree]i don't know.

i've never seen this before and found it very interesting. especially the bit about how dragster engines only have to make a max of 900 revs!

i think if someone finds an interesting thread from while back then they should be free to comment thenh everyone else who hasn't seen it can.[/QUOTE]
lol i reposted this info a few hours ago, couldn't find this thread in the search engine:confused:

I guess i'm not the only one who reads Automobile mag in here.