Some interesting Top Fuel dragster facts:

 

* One dragster's 500-inch Hemi makes more horsepower then the first 8 rows at Daytona

 

* 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.

 

* The supercharger takes more power to drive then a stock hemi makes.

 

* Even with nearly 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into nearly-solid 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 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 of it's 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 blow the block in half.

 

* Dragsters twist the crank (torsionally) so far (20 degrees in the

big end of the track) that sometimes cam lobes are ground offset from front to rear to re-phase the valve timing somewhere closer to synchronization with the pistons.

 

* To exceed 300mph 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 read this sentence.

Originally posted by paulg

 

* At stoichiometric (exact) 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture (for nitro), the

flame front of nitromethane measures 7050 degrees F.

 

i think you'll find that should be 14.7:1 !

 

some interesting facts tho :)

:D will there be a test afterwards?

I love it when they burn out and you can see the tyres wind up so to speak.

Originally posted by Paul C

i think you'll find that should be 14.7:1 !

 

some interesting facts tho :)

 

 

For petrol yes, but not for nitro as nitro methane is contains lots of oxygen so is it's own oxidiser.

 

Quote from...

 

http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:MwjFjzbSeTcC:pages.prodigy.net/csw_cmt/page10.htm+stoichiometric++nitro&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

 

 

"...Nitromethane does contain a lot of oxygen, which makes it nearly a mono-propellant. Meaning, it requires almost no additional air (oxygen) for burning. Therefore it burns best when run at a very rich ratio of 2:1 to 1:1! Thus even though pound for pound nitro is less powerful than gasoline, nitro can make almost double the power of a gasoline engine of the same configuration..."

I'll get my coat!! LOL!! :D

So what petrol stations sell Nitromethane then??

 

Seems like I need some!! LMAO!!