Top Fuel Dragster Trivia
One top fuel dragster's 500-inch Hemi makes more horsepower than the first 8 rows at the Daytona 500.
Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1 1/2 gallons of nitro per second, the same rate of fuel
consumption as a fully loaded 747 but with 4 times the energy volume.
A stock hemi will not produce enough power to drive the dragster's supercharger. Even with nearly 3000 CFM
of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into nearlysolid
form before ignition.
Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock.
Dual magnetos apply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder.
At stoichiometric (exact) 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture (for nitro), the flame front of nitromethane 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.
Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After getting underway, 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 those
cylinders and then explodes with a force that can blow cylinder heads off the block in pieces or split the
block in half.
To exceed 300 mph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must accelerate at an average of over 4G's. But in reaching 200
mph well before 1/2 track, launch acceleration is closer to 8G's.
If all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs
$1000.00 per second.
Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have completed reading this sentence.
Top Fuel Engines turn ONLY 540 revolutions from light to light!
The red line is actually quite high at 9500 rpm.
The current Top Fuel Dragster elapsed time record is 4.441 seconds for the quarter mile (10/04/05 Tony Schumacher)
Current Speed record is 336.15 (5/25/05 Tony Schumacher).
The current Top Fuel Funny car ET and speed records are 4.665 seconds @ 333.58 (10/03/04 John Force).
Putting all of this in perspective:
You are driving an average Lingenfelter powered "twinturbo" Corvette. 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, but you still run the 'Vette hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line and past
the dragster at an honest 200 mph. At this moment, the dragster launches and starts after you.
You keep your foot hard down, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums and within seconds
the dragster catches and passes you. He beats you to the finish line, a quarter mile away from where you
passed him. That, folks, is acceleration. Think about it, from a standing start, this phenomenal
machine has spotted you 200mph and not only caught, but nearly blasted you off the road when he passed you within a
mere 1320 feet. Now, tell me about the time you spun the wheels and laid rubber on dry concrete?!
