I will be in the bleachers at the Sonoma NHRA nationals on the 26th for Friday night qualifying.
NOTHING ELSE COMPARES.
One of those things that must be seen and felt in person the be believed. Audio and video of this spectacle is a pitiful joke. They're at about 11,000 horsepower now with speeds pushing 340 mph.
I absolutely love the Nitro Funny Cars and have since the 1980"s
To put the nitro car speed in perspective, if a nitro car launches from the line as you pass it going 200 MPH in your car, the nitro car will beat you through the 1/4 mile.
TOP FUEL ACCELERATION PUT INTO PERSPECTIVE Top Fuel dragsters are the quickest accelerating racing cars in the world and the fastest sanctioned category of drag racing, with the fastest competitors reaching speeds of 335 miles per hour (539 km/h) and finishing the 1,000 foot (305 m) runs in 3.64 seconds. Here are some fuel facts. * One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic-inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower (11,000 HP) than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500. * Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 11.2 gallons 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 merely 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 nitro methane 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 cylinder heads off the block in pieces or split the block in half. * Dragsters reach over 300 MPH before you have completed reading this sentence. * In order to exceed 300 MPH in 4 seconds, dragsters must accelerate an average of over 4 G's. In order to reach 200 MPH well before half-track, the launch acce leration approaches 8 G's. * Top Fuel engines turn approximately 480 revolutions from light to light! * Including the burnout, the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load. * The redline is actually quite high at 9500 RPM. * THE BOTTOM LINE: Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, & for once, NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated $1,000 per second. 0 to 100 MPH in .8 seconds (the first 60 feet of the run) 0 to 200 MPH in 2.2 seconds (the first 350 feet of the run) 6 g-forces at the starting line (nothing accelerates faster on land) 6 negative g-forces upon deployment of twin ‘chutes at 300 MPH An NHRA Top Fuel Dragster accelerates quicker than any other land vehicle on earth . . quicker than a jet fighter plane . . . quicker than the space shuttle. The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 3,628 seconds for the 1000' track (2018, Clay Millican). The top speed record is 336.57 MPH as measured over the last 66' of the run (2018, Tony Schumacher). Putting this all into perspective: You are driving the average $140,000 Lingenfelter twin-turbo powered Corvette Z06. Over a mile up the road, a Top Fuel dragster is staged & ready to launch down a quarter-mile strip as you pass. You have the advantage of a flying start. You run the 'Vette hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line & pass the dragster at an honest 200 MPH. The 'tree' goes green for both of you at that moment. The dragster launches & starts after you. You keep your foot down hard, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums & within 3 seconds the dragster catches & 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 & not only cau ght, but nearly blasted you off the road when he passed you within a mere 1000 foot long race! That's acceleration
Yup, was there in 88' for the first event when Amato and Oswald were rockin the track.
Haven't been in several decades but your correct there is nothing like when the surrounding hills are echoing those dragons roaring their fire. I can only imagine what its like today.
I will be in the bleachers at the Sonoma NHRA nationals on the 26th for Friday night qualifying.
NOTHING ELSE COMPARES.
One of those things that must be seen and felt in person the be believed. Audio and video of this spectacle is a pitiful joke. They're at about 11,000 horsepower now with speeds pushing 340 mph.
I absolutely love the Nitro Funny Cars and have since the 1980"s
I used to work the aid cars for the dragsters, motor cross, crotch-rocket races, etc......I’m well aware of the raw power and shear violence of those dragsters. I never could enjoy it since I knew that we’d be busy, we always were. I wasn’t a gear head but I appreciated the racers courage and the intelligence and teamwork that went into a well-oiled racing team. I marveled at the number of people willing to put themselves into harms way each race night and I cheered at the quick flight time of Airlift Northwest. We got real good at setting up an LZ and packaging up the patient for the flight to Harborview. After working there I had lost any desire for a motorcycle or race cars. I’d leave their with a head splitting headache from the noise, smell and stress...
Stood at the finish line next to the wall at the Winternationals at Pomona one year. It was not just loud, it is a physical and mental experience. You are buffeted by sound waves. If you are not used to it, it is a confusing sensation. Jim Dunn, of Funny Car Summer was an engineer on our department. My first engineer Dick Stirling was his crew chief for a while. Dunn was a character. He worked at a kind of slow station in a high hazard commercial area of Los Angeles County. The city kind of closed up at night and he could tinker with some his equipment or the car hauler. He would do duty trades and benefit time to get to the races.
Agreed. As soon as you do something for money it takes a lot of the fun out of it. I have several buddies that made fishing or hunting their career but it robbed them of the joy they once felt for it. I really did marvel at the nasty grinders that we’d clean up only to have another group ready to go once the track was cleaned up. It was the loudest most intense recreational activity I’ve ever seen. I did have a good time at the races and I learned that there’s no way I’d do what those guys did. I was satisfied sitting in the air conditioned rig waiting for the call. We did have front row seats every weekend which was cool.
Stood at the finish line next to the wall at the Winternationals at Pomona one year. It was not just loud, it is a physical and mental experience. You are buffeted by sound waves. If you are not used to it, it is a confusing sensation. Jim Dunn, of Funny Car Summer was an engineer on our department. My first engineer Dick Stirling was his crew chief for a while. Dunn was a character. He worked at a kind of slow station in a high hazard commercial area of Los Angeles County. The city kind of closed up at night and he could tinker with some his equipment or the car hauler. He would do duty trades and benefit time to get to the races.
Was at Firebird Raceway in Boise, ID the day Big Jim Dun in the Fireman's Quickie did a burn out in the staging lane The throttle stuck and he crashed into the souvenir stand at the end of the staging lane. I believe it killed one and injured several. Was the end of his driving career and a truly unfortunate event.