A Lesson in Acceleration:

* 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).

Putting all of this into perspective:

You are riding the average $250,000 Honda MotoGP bike. 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 RC211V hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line and past
the dragster at an honest 200 mph (293 ft/sec)(assuming fire doesnt shoot out the front of the bike). The 'tree' goes green for both of you at that moment. The dragster launches and starts after you. You keep your wrist! cranked 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 (you must ride a Kawi to appreciate this type of power) [sm=badbadbad.gif]

 

I had read that before but I have enjoyed it again. Thanks

 

wow a bigger gear head than me!!!!! You are the bomb! Never thought of that.

 

The only thing that stinks about the way they qualify their records is to make two back to back passes at that speed or time within a few mph's or thousanths of a sec to lock it in. Tony actually went 336.?? but didn't back it up which is a shame. That my friends is damn fast. If you ever pay attention to the drivers of these machines you'll notice that almost all of their faces are kinda winded and wrinkled at the eyes. This is from the massive positive and negative G's put on them in just a few seconds. But over the years it takes it's toll. Their eyeballs literally almost pop out of socket when they pull the shutes. I'm a huge gear head and make every NHRA event at Gateway international every year I can, but more than that, I have my own car I race on occation when the money allows me to.........lol. Huge respect to those guys who do it ever weekend and live to tell about it. But how about those bikes out there. I hate to say it, but those harley's are screamin(no pun intended). Too bad Angelle is married now though.....[:@]