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<DIV>About 1979, when I was racing Drag Boats, in Oklahoma City I was pitted
next to a top fueler. Their engine was removed from the boat and
completely torn down between passes; the custom ground billet crank was changed
for a new one after every 12 runs, but detail inspected after each run. (A
complete race usually meant anywhere from 6 to 8 passes, sometimes more.) There
were separate crewmembers for the Blower, injectors, heads, magnetos, fuel, etc.
at least 10 people. Looked like a ballet when the boat went on the
trailer. I remember the crew chief asking the owner "do you want to win
the next heat badly enough to waste 2 pistons?" The owner said, without
hesitation, "Sure." When they tore down the engine after the next pass, sure
enough, 2 pistons were history. Like they say: Nitro eats bank
accounts. At that time, before the price went up, nitro was costing $1300
per drum. Several drums per race.</DIV>
<DIV>Hope I don't get into too much trouble for being off-subject.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Bill Glaze</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=jpavlick@idseng.com href="mailto:jpavlick@idseng.com">John
Pavlick</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=nsrca-discussion@lists.nsrca.org
href="mailto:nsrca-discussion@lists.nsrca.org">General pattern discussion</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, June 02, 2009 5:15
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [NSRCA-discussion] Off topic
but extremely interesting(acceleration)</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
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<DIV>And best of all a top fuel dragster runs on Nitromethane, just like
REAL model airplane engines do! LOL</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>John Pavlick</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><BR>--- On <B>Tue, 6/2/09, Anthony Abdullah <I><<A
href="mailto:aabdu@sbcglobal.net">aabdu@sbcglobal.net</A>></I></B>
wrote:<BR></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(16,16,255) 2px solid"><BR>From:
Anthony Abdullah <<A
href="mailto:aabdu@sbcglobal.net">aabdu@sbcglobal.net</A>><BR>Subject:
[NSRCA-discussion] Off topic but extremely interesting
(acceleration)<BR>To: "General pattern discussion" <<A
href="mailto:nsrca-discussion@lists.nsrca.org">nsrca-discussion@lists.nsrca.org</A>><BR>Date:
Tuesday, June 2, 2009, 5:02 PM<BR><BR>
<DIV id=yiv1137940626>
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<DIV>I love high performance stuff and very few things are
higher performance than a top fuel dragster. This puts it into
perspective:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'"><STRONG>Acceleration
explained.</STRONG></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'">
<BR> <BR> <BR></SPAN><B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial', 'sans-serif'">*
One Top Fuel dragster outfitted with a 500 cubic-inch replica
Dodge (actually Keith Black, etc) Hemi engine makes more
horsepower (8,000 HP) than the first 4 rows at NASCAR's Daytona
500. <BR><BR>* Under full throttle, a dragster engine will
consume 11.2 gallons of nitro methane per second; a fully loaded
Boeing 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate but with 25% less
energy being produced. <BR><BR>* A stock Dodge Hemi V8 engine
cannot produce enough power to merely drive the dragster's
supercharger. <BR><BR>* 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 lockup at full throttle.</SPAN></B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'">
<BR></SPAN><B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial', 'sans-serif'"><BR>*
At the stoichio metric 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitro methane
the flame front temperature measures 7050 degrees F. <BR><BR>*
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.
<BR><BR>* Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug. Which
is typically the output of an electric arc welder in each
cylinder. <BR><BR>* Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed
during a pass. After 1/2 way thru the run, the engine is
'dieseling' from compression and the glow of the exhaust valves
at 1400 degrees F. The engine can only be shut down by
cutting the fuel flow. <BR><BR>* If spark momentarily fails
early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in the affected
cylinders and then explodes with enough sufficient force to blow
the cylinder heads off the block in pieces or split the block in
half !! <BR><BR>* Dragsters reach over 300 MPH +... before you
have completed reading this sentence. <BR><BR>* In order to
exceed 300 MPH in 4.5 seconds, a dragster must accelerate an
average of over 4 G's. In order to reach 200 MPH well before
reaching half-track, at launch the acceleration approaches 8
G's. <BR><BR>* Top Fuel engines turn approximately 540
revolutions from light to light! <BR><BR>* Including the
burnout, the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under
load. <BR><BR>* The redline is actually quite high at 9500 RPM.
<BR><BR>* THE BOTTOM LINE: Assuming all the equipment is paid
for, the pit crew is working for free, & NOTHING BLOWS UP,
each run will cost an estimated $1,000 per second. <BR><BR>0 to
100 MPH in .8 seconds (the first 60 feet of t he run) <BR>0 to
200 MPH in 2.2 seconds (the first 350 feet of the run) <BR>6
g-forces at the starting line (nothing accelerates faster on
land) <BR>6 negative g-forces upon deployment of twin 'chutes at
300 MPH</SPAN></B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'">
<BR></SPAN><B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial', 'sans-serif'"><BR>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....or snapping your fingers !!
<BR><BR>The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is
4.420 seconds for the quarter-mile (2004, Doug Kalitta).
The top speed record is 337.58 MPH as measured over the last 66'
of the run (2005, Tony Schumacher). <BR><BR>Let's now put this
all into perspective: <BR><BR>Imagine this...........You are
driving a new $140,000 Lingenfelter twin-turbo powered Corvette
Z-06. Over a mile up the road, a Top Fuel dragster is staged
& ready to 'launch' down a quarter-mile s trip as you pass.
You have the advantage of a flying start. You run the 'Vette
hard, on 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 exact
moment.</SPAN></B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'">
<BR></SPAN><B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial', 'sans-serif'"><BR>The
dragster departs & starts after you. You keep your foot
buried hard to the floor, and suddenly you hear an incredibly
brutally screaming whine that seares and pummels your eardrums
& within a mere 3 seconds the dragster effortlessly 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.....and it not only caught, but nearly blasted you off the
planet when he passed you within a mere 1320 foot long race !!!!
<BR><BR>That, my friends.....is acceleration.</SPAN></B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'">
</SPAN></DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></DIV><BR>-----Inline
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