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SXRguyinMA
03-16-2010, 01:43 PM
found this a while back and came across it again and thought I'd share it. Pretty crazy stuff!


One top fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500

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

A stock Dodge 426 cubic inch (7.0 liter) Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to drive the top fuel dragster's supercharger

With 3000cfm 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 7050ºF (899ºC)

Nitromethane burns yellow. The spectacular whate flame seen above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, disassociated from atmospheric water vapor by the searing exhaust gasses

Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug

Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After 1/2 way, the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of the exhaust valves at 1400ºF (760ºC). The engine can only be shut down by cutting fuel flow

If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in the affected cylinder(s) and then explodes with sufficient force to blow cylinder heads off the block in pices or split the block in half

In order to exceed 300mph (483kph) in 4.5 seconds, dragsters must accellerate at an average of over 4G's. In order to reach 200mph (322kph) well before half-track, the launch acceleration approaches 8G's

Dragsters reach over 300mph before you have finished reading this sentence

Top fuel engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from green light to cut off. This one's confusing, but stop and ponder the fact that the engine is only used for approx. 4 to 5 seconds

Including the burnout the engine can only survive 900 revolutions under load. The redline is 9500RPM

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Luke122
03-16-2010, 01:54 PM
Awesome.. watch the slowmo reply at the end of the second vid. The car in the left lane just disappears.. ROCKET. :D

TheMainMan
03-16-2010, 02:00 PM
A stock Dodge 426 cubic inch (7.0 liter) Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to drive the top fuel dragster's supercharger


Wow, talk about horsepower to displacement ratio differences! These were some neat facts, thanks!

Oneslowz28
03-16-2010, 06:50 PM
At the NHRA southern nationals 2 years ago I got invited back into Jegs pit and got to see the spark plugs first hand. The electrode had in fact eroded deep into the insulator.

At a separate event at Atlanta Dragway a few months earlier I was down by the fence when one of the top fulies shook the tires around the 60 foot mark and it cause an over rev and blew the blower right off the engine. I am not talking about the belt, I mean it blew the whole blower off the engine.

This thread makes me miss drag racing. Must resist urge to buy new transmission and start racing again.

x88x
03-16-2010, 07:48 PM
Wow, I never knew they were that powerful. (I suppose the engine more than half the size of my car should have been a good hint though...)



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

I can't help but wonder what kind of acceleration could be obtained with said engine from a 747 though... :twisted: ...it's a good thing I don't have the money to satisfy these strange curiosities...I feel like I wouldn't live very long if I did. :P

Trace
03-16-2010, 08:03 PM
...it's a good thing I don't have the money to satisfy these strange curiosities...I feel like I wouldn't live very long if I did. :P

Sig quoted

Oneslowz28
03-16-2010, 10:17 PM
Wow, I never knew they were that powerful. (I suppose the engine more than half the size of my car should have been a good hint though...)




I can't help but wonder what kind of acceleration could be obtained with said engine from a 747 though... :twisted: ...it's a good thing I don't have the money to satisfy these strange curiosities...I feel like I wouldn't live very long if I did. :P

The engines are not any larger than a normal big block with a blower on top.

and here are some videos of dragsters with a jet engine bolted to them. All these are videos from my local drag strip. While these videos were not taken by me I was there for every one of them. I have not missed the jet show for the last 8 years. When the semi passes you in full afterburner the concussion from the pressure wave is deafening.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttiD5yiTC4g
Bob Motz Jet powered Semi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3_qdDNlCvc
Bob Motz again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaCTiMAdc6E&feature=related
Another Jet Truck

These are not from Carolina Dragway but they are true Jet Engine Dragsters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eoYJEGHLpo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7farucP36s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyc1aNXozpU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWCiqwaZDi0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA6uEj7uLv4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKBEBRhXEbo

SXRguyinMA
03-17-2010, 08:10 AM
I can't help but wonder what kind of acceleration could be obtained with said engine from a 747 though... :twisted: ...it's a good thing I don't have the money to satisfy these strange curiosities...I feel like I wouldn't live very long if I did. :P

but dont forget a 747 uses 4 jet engines to consume the amount of fuel as that single piston engine :devious:

x88x
03-17-2010, 02:24 PM
but dont forget a 747 uses 4 jet engines to consume the amount of fuel as that single piston engine :devious:

Yeah, true. It also occurs to me that those are gas turbine engines, so they would be very poorly suited to drag racing because of the variable power ratings of gas turbine engines. They start off with very little power, but get more and more powerful the higher they go.