My son and I are pretty much gearheads by nature. He likes building things and tinkering with stuff about as much as I do. Our tastes in all things mechanical are very similar. We both like Hot Rods, Choppers, Semi Trucks, and Airplanes. We both enjoy racing on many different levels as well. We obviously love Karting, and we rarely miss a chance to watch F1 and European Rallying when it comes to the Speed Channel.
The difference between us is in our views on Drag Racing. I'm a freak when it comes to IHRA and NHRA Drag Racing. I've been so pretty much all my life. He's just kind of so-so on it. I've gone to countless amateur races at a local track but until recently, never to an NHRA event. I even competed once on a motorcycle but that came to a crashing end when I lined up on the oil strip, came out of the box sideways at the green light, and got myself thrown 25 feet through the air. That pro event drought all changed last year when I took him to the Chicagoland Speedway. Aside from the weather being lousy (a high of about 50) I had a blast. I couldn't sleep for about a week knowing that I was finally going to experience the sounds, the smells, and the whole circus that is the NHRA Powerade Drag Racing series.
I plucked him out of bed at 4:30am and off we drove. Well, I drove. He slept all the way there. We arrived early enough to watch a few teams set up their equipment, build engines, and basically get themselves ready for the day. Shortly after, we took our seats high up in the grandstand and sat through a mind numbing assortment of amateur and low end bracket racing. As my luck is, The first Top Fuel Dragster started up and took to it's first burn-out
as we were both standing in line for the bathroom. Just the sound of that thing alone made the hair on the back of my neck stand straight up. I've attended many different types of auto, cycle, and boat racing events in my life and nothing has ever had that effect on me. That engine meant business! We returned to our seats to watch the rest of the T/F guys and could not believe what we were seeing. TV does no justice to just how fast and how powerful these things are. They would do their burn-out, which was pretty loud even with earplugs or headsets on, but the real feeling comes from the run. Remember the phrase "The calm before the storm"? That's what happens in a T/F FC or Dragster run. I never found out if they lean or richen the thing out, but just as they get the car staged, the engine tone goes down a notch. But once that light turns green, and before you really hear this thing scream, there's a compression that forces out from that car so hard that it made the grandstand actually sway! Your chest literally feels like someone is pushing on you. Picture the old tv footage of that house blowing over in a nuclear bomb strike and you'll get the idea.
I obviously walked away from that day with a new found respect for the technical end of things. How teams like that can build these things to make so much power, blow itself to pieces, and be rebuilt before the next run, is completely amazing. I've also collected some technical aspects of Top Fuel racing that is mind boggling that I'd like to share with you. Don't get me wrong, I'm still a Road Racer at heart. With stats like these I wish there was a way I could strap myself to one of these things just once.
FUN FACTS REGARDING FUEL CARS
• One Top Fuel Dragster’s 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows of the Daytona 500.
• Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1 gallon 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 alone. It takes nearly 1500 horsepower to do this!
• With 3000cfm of air being rammed into the dragster’s engine 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 nitro methane, the flame front temperature measures 7050 degrees F.
• Nitro methane 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 about ½ 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.
• A dragster can reach 300 mph before you have completed reading this sentence.
• The engine’s redline is quite high at 9500 RPM.
• In order to exceed 300 mph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must accelerate at an average of 4Gs. In order to reach 200 mph well before half track, the launch acceleration approaches 8Gs.
• 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 pieces or split the block in half.
• The pressure coming out of the headers can provide as much as 1000 lbs of down force. When a cylinder is lost it can actually steer the car due to the loss of down force on one side.
• There is so much torsional twist in the crankshaft (up to 20 degrees) that sometimes cam lobes are ground offset from front to rear to try and re-phase the valve timing closer to synchronization with the pistons.
• A Top Fuel Dragster can reach over 60 mph before the rear wheels cross the start line (300 inches).
• Assuming all equipment is paid for, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BREAKS, each run costs an estimated $3000 per second.
PUTTING ALL OF THIS INTO PERSPECTIVE:
There you are, driving your $140,000 Lingenfelter twin-turbo powered Corvette Z06, (or your blown Viper). Over a mile up the road ahead of you, a Top Fuel Dragster is staged and ready to launch down a quarter mile strip as you pass.
You run your car hard through the gears and blast across the starting line at an honest 200 mph, and the “tree” goes green for the dragster and he launches at that same moment. You keep your foot down hard, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that hurts your ears and, within 3 seconds the dragster catches and passes you. He beats you to the finish line, a quarter of a mile away from where you just passed him going 200 mph.
Think about it! From a standing start, the dragster has spotted you 200 mph and not only caught you but nearly blew you off the road when it passed you within a mere 1320 feet!
