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Old 24-12-2004, 05:11 PM   #1
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Top Fuel

A mate of mine just emailed me this


Top Fuel facts'n'figures

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

* Under full throttle, a Top Fuel dragster engine consumes 1 gallon of nitromethane 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 nitromethane the flame front temperature measures 7050 degrees F.

* 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. 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 the 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 (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).


Merry Xmas!!! :crimbo3:
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Old 24-12-2004, 05:54 PM   #2
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Re: Top Fuel

Quote:
Originally posted by Johnny Boat Dude
A mate of mine just emailed me this
He's not thinking of having a go is he?

If he's looking for sponsorship he should contact Depsol on Fib.net, I've heard he's got some spare sponsorship dosh!
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Old 24-12-2004, 06:08 PM   #3
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Re: Re: Top Fuel

Quote:
Originally posted by Tony Davis
He's not thinking of having a go is he?
No, its just an interest of his. He's got a mildy tuned Beetle and used to do the 'Run what you Brung' events a few years back for a bit of fun. He's gettin back into it again now.
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Old 25-12-2004, 12:05 PM   #4
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Did you ever have the pleasure of watching 'Vanishing Point' run?

It was a hydrogen peroxide rocket car.

Sadly, the owner/driver, Sammy Miller was killed in 2002 (not drag racing tho')


http://www.draglist.com/Pictures/POD...POD-071302.htm

Back in '84, he recorded the fastest 1/4 mile pass in history with vanishing point, @ 3.58 secs! (at Santa Pod, UK)


Now that was a sight to see
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Old 25-12-2004, 07:54 PM   #5
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I've been doing a bit of research/reminising on Sammy Miller, and 'Vanishing Point'.

Here are some figures:

"Not every record I set was in Europe, though. I was at Lake George in Glen Falls, New York in 1981 and we put blades on the "Oxygen" dragster making it an ice sled and I ran that record 1.67-second time at 247-mph."

Miller's European exploits are unlike those of any racer anywhere. The only opponent he had to deal with was himself and it was always in an ultimate "can you top this?" format. Consequently, you'll rarely, if ever, find copy that reads "on such and such a date, Miller ran a 4.22 to beat whatshisname." Miller's conquests are best expressed numerically and in simple declarative sentences. Below are just a few of Miller's remarkable feats.

His first three-second run occured at Santa Pod Raceway in Bedfordshire, England in 1980 where he ran a 3.90. (As a point of comparison, the lowest NHRA Top Fuel e.t. that year was a 5.68.)
In 1981, he set the world ice speed and e.t. record with a 1.67 at 247-mph in the eighth-mile.
By 1980, he held 30 United States state and track records in elapsed time and mile per hour.
He holds the quickest elapsed time and mile per hour standards in the following countries:
(1/4 mile)
CANADA (4.26/331)
DENMARK (4.97/267)
ENGLAND (3.58/386)
SWEDEN (4.10/328)
MEXICO (4.95/274)

**BEST SPEED - 386.26 at Santa Pod (England), although Miller did run 396-mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah over a quarter-mile from a standing start.

BEST E.T. - 3.583

(1/8 mile)
BELGIUM (3.13/211)
HOLLAND (1.606/307)
ENGLAND (2.00/312)
SWEDEN (2.27/297)
GERMANY (2.49/259)
CORSICA (2.56/238)

1.606 seconds to 307 mph in 1/8 mile! (that's 200 metres!)
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