TOP FUEL DRAGSTER FACTS - DEBUNKED

-One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500. They have over half again as much horsepower in one cylinder as a Dodge Viper has in all ten. No one has ever successfully run one long enough on a dyno to get a horsepower reading. Current estimates are right around 6,000 horsepower.

-6000hp dragster v. 8 750hp Nascars turns out amazingly to be exactly 6000hp. What a douche. And current estimates for top fuel are 7500.

-Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1-1/2 gallons of nitro methane per second; a fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate with 25% less energy being produced.

-We are talking about two TOTALLY different types of fuel here, doesn't even warrant a comparison.

-A stock Dodge Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to drive the dragster supercharger. The fuel pump alone requires more horsepower to turn than the average street car produces.

-Supercharger consumes 900hp in order to be effective.

-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.

-This is not a goddamn diesel. These motors do not compress a fuel mixture in order to achieve spark, they have EIGHTEEN fuckin spark plugs for that. FUCK.

-The 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitro methane produces a 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, disassociated from atmospheric water vapour 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.

-Two plugs per cylinder, sparked by two MSD distributers, which do produce 88 amps, but is spread over the 16 plugs, giving each plug 5.5 amps or 11 per cylinder.

-Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After the run, the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1400 degrees F. The engine can only be shut down by running the car out of fuel. There is no way to cut off the fuel; the engine stops only when it blows or the tank runs dry.

-That is the one that pissed me off. Any car running under a 10.5 is required by the NHRA to have an emergency fuel pump shut off switch, one operated by the driver and one on the rear of the vehicle in case the driver is not capable of shutting it down. If you do not have this you will not pass your tech inspection and will not be allowed to run. And you can see these guys shut it down at the 1000' mark on every pass. Ohh....and BTW, they shut these guys down at the line all the time when someone in front of them wrecks drops fluids blows up etc, cause they have to wait for them to clear/prep the track.

-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.

-This happens all the time and the motor does not blow up or split in half, essentially the fuel fouls the plug like in any other engine with too rich of a mixture, and you drop that cylinder. You can actually see this happen during the pass, instead of exhaust fumes or flames if it is after dark, you would see unburned fuel spraying from the header.

-In order to exceed 300 mph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must accelerate an average of over 4G's. In order to reach 200 mph well before half-track, the launch acceleration approaches 8G's. To put this in perspective; a top fuel dragster, parked next to a Super Hornet on the steam catapult on the deck of an aircraft carrier, would be in the water and sinking before the Super Hornet was halfway down the deck.

-True. Dragsters are not capable of flight. He also fails to mention we are talking about a 45,000lb plane going from 0-165 in two seconds and a 2200lb car from 0-300 in a little over 4sec. So I guess you could argue that a plane on the catapult for 4 seconds with constant acceleration would be around 350+ mph.

-Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have completed reading this sentence.

-Bullshit. Just read that in 2.4 seconds. 

-Top Fuel Engines only turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light!

-This dipshit is even contradicting himself. Assuming his redline rpm is right (which it is not) 9500rpm = 158.3 revolutions per second. 158.3RPSx4.5 second pass would give you 712.35 total revolutions. He can't even do math.

-Including the burnout, the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load. They only survive about 80% of the time.

-Under load is not Idle, under load is under throttle. They are under throttle for maybe 5 seconds counting the burnout. See above.

-Redline at 9500 rpm.

-Again, bullshit. Redline is 8500.

-Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated $1,000.00 per second.
 
-The engine is entirely rebuilt every run, or every 900 revolutions. New pistons and rings, new rods, new rod bearings. Sometimes a new crank. The crew does this in about two hours between rounds.

-True, minus the revolution bullshit.

-The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.441 seconds for the quarter mile. The top speed record is 333.00 mph (533 km/h) as measured over the last 66' of the run.

-Finally, he got something right.

-Putting all of this 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 and 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 and past the dragster at an honest 200 mph. The 'tree' goes green for both of you at that moment. The dragster launches and starts after you. You keep your foot down hard, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums and within 3 seconds the dragster catches and 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 and not only caught, but nearly blasted you off the road when he passed you within a mere 1320 foot long race course.

-I don't know the physics on this and I honestly dont think this guy does either, and given his track record I'm calling bullshit.

That is all. I am officially done bitching and ranting. Thank you though, for giving me something to do this morning. Other than that I would have been super bored.