Taken from a top fuel site.

Have you ever dreamed about pulling up at a neighborhood intersection and leaving the cream-colored Volvo wagon next to you at the lights in total shock with the soccer mom driving ****ing her draws when the light turns green?? Or maybe its a police car, convertible BMW babe in a bikini and sun glasses, or an obnoxious pimply-faced ricer, or just another hot-rod guy that thinks he has a fast car.. your dream.

=====================================
ACCELERATION

One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500. [According to NHRA stats, approximately 7000]

Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1-1/2 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 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 (stoichiometry: methodology and technology by which quantities of reactants and products in chemical reactions are determined) 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitro-methane 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 half 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 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 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 9500rpm.

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 (Sgt. Tony Schumacher - Photo above 10/05/03 and below [top]). The top speed record is 333.00 mph. (533 km/h) as measured over the last 66' of the run (Doug Kalitta Photo below 09/28/03 [bottom]).



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 folks, is acceleration

best reading i have done in a while!!!!!!!!!!!

I like showing that to the NASCAR guys at work, puts them in shock.

And watching qualifying yesterday 327mph and 4.44...they said 278 1/8 MPH :eek:

Tony Schumacher ran the quickest Top Fuel pass of the year -- a 4.447 at 327 mph -- to lead a record-setting final day of Pro qualifying at the CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals

Loved it, thanks :beers:

Yea, but it still looks like every other dragster in the world.

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 folks, is acceleration

That folks, is a wrong assumption and not a lesson in acceleration. If I average 200 mph in my Vette for a quarter mile, I'll cover the distance in about 4.50 seconds. Since my Vette has a top speed of about 240, I might be able to pick up another 10 mph in those 4.5 seconds, averaging 205 mph and allowing me to arrive at the finish line ahead of the dragster in a time of 4.39 seconds. He'd make a lot of noise as he went by me just after the finish line, but I'd win.

Yea, but it still looks like every other dragster in the world.

I'm with Harold on this one, its impressive but they all look alike, same with Funny Cars (wedge with bubble on top). I'd much rather watch Pro Stock, Pro Mods,fuel altereds, 10.5 and outlaw 10.5 classes. Even the Pro Mods are getting the swoopy wedge,aero dynamic bodies, I'd much rather watch an OEM body style go fast.

That folks, is a wrong assumption and not a lesson in acceleration. If I average 200 mph in my Vette for a quarter mile, I'll cover the distance in about 4.50 seconds. Since my Vette has a top speed of about 240, I might be able to pick up another 10 mph in those 4.5 seconds, averaging 205 mph and allowing me to arrive at the finish line ahead of the dragster in a time of 4.39 seconds. He'd make a lot of noise as he went by me just after the finish line, but I'd win.

Ok, so I agree that you could get to the finish line 1st, But how is it not a lesson in acceleration?
That top fueler just caught you from a stand still and you were already at 200mph.
If that isn't acceleration then please explain what is.
You made a good point about winning, now tell how it is not a lesson in acceleration please.

Thanks

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.

If it's a lesson in acceleration, it's got the wrong lesson plan. The dragster will not catch you in 3 seconds, instead it will take approximately 4.38 seconds and you'll be approximately 30' from the finish line. If you could coax another 6 mph out of the Vette during the quarter mile, averaging 203 mph, you'd beat the dragster.

You are going to gain 6-10 mph in just 4 seconds doing 200 mph already? Just curious.
Jeff

It's all possible. The Lingenfelter Vette is rated at 240 mph top speed, runs the quarter in 8.9 seconds @ 153, 0-100 in 4.3 seconds, 0-60 in 2 seconds flat. It doesn't take much of an extrapolation to predict the ability to gain 6 mph in 4 seconds at 200 mph.

It's all possible. The Lingenfelter Vette is rated at 240 mph top speed, runs the quarter in 8.9 seconds @ 153, 0-100 in 4.3 seconds, 0-60 in 2 seconds flat. It doesn't take much of an extrapolation to predict the ability to gain 6 mph in 4 seconds at 200 mph. With the power that twin turbo vette makes it would probably gain more like 8-10 more MPH on this make believe race and so would get there ahead of the fuel dragster anyhow.

Still, wether the vette can win or not, the fact that the T/F catches you at all in 3 or 4 or even 5 seconds IS a lesson in acceleration.

Try it in your family car, I bet you don't accelerate anywhere near that fast.

Let's say it was a tie and the dragster wanted a rematch. How long would the Vette have to wait for the fueler to do his teardown and rebuild. Maybe if there were 8-10 topfuelers ready we could get a winner. Two would blow the tires off, one will blow the top off the engine and the blower belt will come off of a couple more. Give me a good 10.5 street car Saturday afternoon.

Have you ever seen a tie? There are no ties in drag racing, the clocks won't allow it.

That folks, is a wrong assumption and not a lesson in acceleration. If I average 200 mph in my Vette for a quarter mile, I'll cover the distance in about 4.50 seconds. Since my Vette has a top speed of about 240, I might be able to pick up another 10 mph in those 4.5 seconds, averaging 205 mph and allowing me to arrive at the finish line ahead of the dragster in a time of 4.39 seconds. He'd make a lot of noise as he went by me just after the finish line, but I'd win.

Yeah if you call that a win :rolleyes:

If you think you would rather watch Pro-stock than top-fuel, then you have never seen them in person. Yeah prostock is cool and looks good on TV, but there is nothing on earth like a Top Fuel dragster. If they ran prostock after top fuel, you would fall asleep watching it. They are so loud that you can't listen to them launch without ear plugs, and they accelerate so fast that it doesn't even look right to your eyes. You almost can't stay focused on the cars. And if that is not enough for you, then you can sneak down to the end of the quarter mile and watch them from the fence as they blow by you at 330 mph. It almost takes the breath right out of your lungs, literally. TV doesn't do them justice at all.

The lingenfelter vette is awesome, but it is absolutley nothing in comparison to a top fuel dragster.

Also, if you think they look just like any other dragster, then you have never seen them in person. They are bigger in every way and you can tell the engine is a top fuel engine from 100 yards away.

Just buy some tickets and go to a race.

The lingenfelter vette is awesome, but it is absolutley nothing in comparison to a top fuel dragster.

I'd say that depends on your point of view. After the first quarter mile the TFD loses some of its luster, and your passenger will start to complain about being strapped to the wing....

Repost

If your in a vehicle travelling at the speed of light......
And then, you turn your lights on....
Would anything happen?

If your in a vehicle travelling at the speed of light......
And then, you turn your lights on....
Would anything happen?
LMAO!

If your in a vehicle travelling at the speed of light......
And then, you turn your lights on....
Would anything happen?

You can't get your vehicle to travel at the speed of light.

I don't think that it matters that the t/f dragster wins or not, or if the vette could pull another 3-4 mph out of it. I think the point is you are already going 200 mph and the t/f not only catches you, it passes you, if you held it steady at 200 mph! and thats all in 1320'
good reading, thanks!
Scott

It's all possible. The Lingenfelter Vette is rated at 240 mph top speed, runs the quarter in 8.9 seconds @ 153, 0-100 in 4.3 seconds, 0-60 in 2 seconds flat. It doesn't take much of an extrapolation to predict the ability to gain 6 mph in 4 seconds at 200 mph.

I'm afraid to ask but what formula did you use to do your extrapolation? I'm terrible at math and I'm wondering if this is one of those "If a car started out from Chicago......." type of problems that I swore I'd never see again.

Yeah if you call that a win :rolleyes:

If you think you would rather watch Pro-stock than top-fuel, then you have never seen them in person. Yeah prostock is cool and looks good on TV, but there is nothing on earth like a Top Fuel dragster. If they ran prostock after top fuel, you would fall asleep watching it. They are so loud that you can't listen to them launch without ear plugs, and they accelerate so fast that it doesn't even look right to your eyes. You almost can't stay focused on the cars. And if that is not enough for you, then you can sneak down to the end of the quarter mile and watch them from the fence as they blow by you at 330 mph. It almost takes the breath right out of your lungs, literally. TV doesn't do them justice at all.

The lingenfelter vette is awesome, but it is absolutley nothing in comparison to a top fuel dragster.

Also, if you think they look just like any other dragster, then you have never seen them in person. They are bigger in every way and you can tell the engine is a top fuel engine from 100 yards away.

Just buy some tickets and go to a race. Fuel dragsters of all kinds suck and i have seen them in person. All look alike and sound alike. If you listen to them without protecting your hearing then when you get to be an old person you'll be DEAF and that's not cool by anybody's standards.

I went to the Nationals last year and didn't have earplugs in while standing next to the fence for the first one. That thing passing me at the 1/8th mile was a physical assault. The noise, exhaust, windstream were VIOLENT from 15 feet away. Just incredible. The hands were hard over the ears from then on but to experience that just once was something to remember.

That folks, is a wrong assumption and not a lesson in acceleration. If I average 200 mph in my Vette for a quarter mile, I'll cover the distance in about 4.50 seconds. Since my Vette has a top speed of about 240, I might be able to pick up another 10 mph in those 4.5 seconds, averaging 205 mph and allowing me to arrive at the finish line ahead of the dragster in a time of 4.39 seconds. He'd make a lot of noise as he went by me just after the finish line, but I'd win.

Dude you missed the point. If I had a rocket ship I could blow the dragster off the road, but that wasn't his example. His point was that you could have a running start of 200 mph and STILL not beat the TF. It had nothing whatsoever to do with the vehicle - it might have been a 75 Impala with a friggin JATO strapped to the roof. The point was a giant block of Swiss cheese or whatever with a 200 mph running start would not beat the TF in the 1/4 mile. Of course if you had a running start of 2000 mph with your rocket you'd wizz by before the guy in the tf even knew you were there, but that wasn't the example. The example of the vette was to say "boy, these things are fast!" And they are!!!

Andy

It really doesn't matter if the vette or a mule crosses the 1320 stripe 1st.
When it comes to acceleration(and I think the name of the thread is "a lesson in acceleration", not who wins a race with a car already doing 200 mph), there is absolutely no comparison.

Whether you like T/F cars or not, or if your vette is painted black and blue, it doesn't matter. It is still damn hard acceleration pure and simple.

Go ahead and hypothesize all you want, and make up all the wild theories about how at 200 mph a bicycle can gain 10 more mph if being chased by a tornado. Acceleration is acceleration.


BTW, Andy is 100% correct!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dude you missed the point. If I had a rocket ship I could blow the dragster off the road, but that wasn't his example. His point was that you could have a running start of 200 mph and STILL not beat the TF. It had nothing whatsoever to do with the vehicle - it might have been a 75 Impala with a friggin JATO strapped to the roof. The point was a giant block of Swiss cheese or whatever with a 200 mph running start would not beat the TF in the 1/4 mile. Of course if you had a running start of 2000 mph with your rocket you'd wizz by before the guy in the tf even knew you were there, but that wasn't the example. The example of the vette was to say "boy, these things are fast!" And they are!!!

Andy
Your right on Andy. That was the point of the article. Some people just like to argue, I guess.:rolleyes:

I thought the point was that "within 3 seconds the dragster catches and passes you". Not so.

I thought the point was that "within 3 seconds the dragster catches and passes you". Not so.

Then you missed the point.

I thought the point was that "within 3 seconds the dragster catches and passes you". Not so.
Dude grow up , that was cool reading and the point was made perfectly!! BY THE WAY this post wasnt for a pi$$ing contest! But if it was you lost!!!!

P.S that is some crazzzzy acceleration.

Taken from a top fuel site.

Have you ever dreamed about pulling up at a neighborhood intersection and leaving the cream-colored Volvo wagon next to you at the lights in total shock with the soccer mom driving ****ing her draws when the light turns green?? Or maybe its a police car, convertible BMW babe in a bikini and sun glasses, or an obnoxious pimply-faced ricer, or just another hot-rod guy that thinks he has a fast car.. your dream.

=====================================
ACCELERATION

One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500. [According to NHRA stats, approximately 7000]

Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1-1/2 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 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 (stoichiometry: methodology and technology by which quantities of reactants and products in chemical reactions are determined) 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitro-methane 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 half 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 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 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 9500rpm.

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 (Sgt. Tony Schumacher - Photo above 10/05/03 and below [top]). The top speed record is 333.00 mph. (533 km/h) as measured over the last 66' of the run (Doug Kalitta Photo below 09/28/03 [bottom]).



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 folks, is acceleration If you had been alive about 25-30 years ago you might have seen a little gem that made the Fuel Dragster look slow by comparison. It was powered by a small bottle which contained Hydrogen Peroxide. It expelled only a large plume of greyish white steam and sounded like a small jet car. They weighed about 600 lbs. and had a reported 10,000 lbs. of thrust. The one that came to Tulsa ran mid 4s at somewhere in the neighborhood of 350 MPH which at the time was about a second and 50 MPH faster than a fuel dragster and this run was reported to be at about half throttle. Started out kinda slow then looked like it had been rear ended by a eighteen wheeler going a hundred MPH. Several flew and a couple of guys got killed when they crashed so they were banned but they were much faster than the fuelers of the day. I think the record for them was in the mid 3.7 second range.

If you listen to them without protecting your hearing then when you get to be an old person you'll be DEAF and that's not cool by anybody's standards.

And here I thought louder=cooler.

And here I thought louder=cooler. Not even.

Some of you guys need to get laid. lol

I was thinking the same thing as 19NOVA72!!!

Harold; I have seen those hydrogen peroxide cars go down the track. No starting line excitement, flames or noise.. just one big swoosh and they were gone. I would like to see an old video of those suckers.. really cool but different and now they are gone. Anyone have any info about them? or better yet know of any videos online? They liked to get airborne.