WOW!

[six2go #152]

I received this in an email this morning and thought I'd pass it on to the "Gearheads " of the board. I don't know if all(or any) of this is fact, but it made me say "Wow".

The Definition of Acceleration

 Read this thru slowly and try to comprehend the amount of force produced in just under 4 seconds!

There are no rockets or airplanes built by any government in the world that can accelerate from a standing start as fast as a Top Fuel Dragster or Funny Car!



DEFINITION OF ACCELERATION



One top fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows of stock cars at the Daytona 500.



It takes just 15/100ths of a second for all 6,000+ horsepower of an NHRA Top Fuel dragster engine to reach the rear wheels.



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.



A stock Dodge Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to drive the dragster's supercharger.



With 3,000 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 (stoichiometry: methodology and technology by which quantities of reactants and products in chemical reactions are determined) 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture of nitro methane, the flame front temperature measures 7,050 deg 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 halfway, the engine is dieseling from compression, plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1,400 deg 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.



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.



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



Top fuel engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light! Including the burnout, the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load.



The redline is actually quite high at 9,500 rpm.



Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimate $1,000.00 per second.



The current top fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.428 seconds for the quarter mile (11/12/06, Tony Schumacher, at Pomona , CA ). The top speed record is 336.15 mph as measured over the last 66' of the run (05/25/05 Tony Schumacher, at Hebron, OH ).



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 pass 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 1,320 foot long race course.



...... and that my friend, is ACCELERATION!

[The Anvil]

I received this in an email this morning and thought I'd pass it on to the "Gearheads " of the board. I don't know if all(or any) of this is fact, but it made me say "Wow".

The Definition of Acceleration

 Read this thru slowly and try to comprehend the amount of force produced in just under 4 seconds!

There are no rockets or airplanes built by any government in the world that can accelerate from a standing start as fast as a Top Fuel Dragster or Funny Car!



DEFINITION OF ACCELERATION



One top fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows of stock cars at the Daytona 500.



It takes just 15/100ths of a second for all 6,000+ horsepower of an NHRA Top Fuel dragster engine to reach the rear wheels.



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.



A stock Dodge Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to drive the dragster's supercharger.



With 3,000 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 (stoichiometry: methodology and technology by which quantities of reactants and products in chemical reactions are determined) 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture of nitro methane, the flame front temperature measures 7,050 deg 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 halfway, the engine is dieseling from compression, plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1,400 deg 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.



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.



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



Top fuel engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light! Including the burnout, the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load.



The redline is actually quite high at 9,500 rpm.



Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimate $1,000.00 per second.



The current top fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.428 seconds for the quarter mile (11/12/06, Tony Schumacher, at Pomona , CA ). The top speed record is 336.15 mph as measured over the last 66' of the run (05/25/05 Tony Schumacher, at Hebron, OH ).



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 pass 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 1,320 foot long race course.



...... and that my friend, is ACCELERATION!

A 747 puts out horsepower in the many tens of thousands, but they're not rated that way. You have to convert thrust to horsepower. But I assure you that four large turbofan engines are more powerful than a dragster.

Where do people come up with this stuff? 

[Valkahuna]

Being a devout NHRA fan, I am constantly amazed watching these machines do what they do. I never have seen some of these comparisons that you just showed us, but it it sure is food for thought.

What to me is even more amazing is the driver element, and the dynamics and aerodynamics of the speed achieved. As a matter of fact, as you probably know, neither Top Fuel Dragsters, or Funny Cars run a quarter mile anymore. They have both been limited to a race of 1,000 feet, in order to keep the speeds down, and yet they still exceed 320 mph even in that distance.  

Now that's a true WOW! Thanks for posting this on the board.

[eric in md]

heck i feel all that every time i get on the valkyrie and twist it . . 

[Hoser]

I received this in an email this morning and thought I'd pass it on to the "Gearheads " of the board. I don't know if all(or any) of this is fact, but it made me say "Wow".

The Definition of Acceleration

 Read this thru slowly and try to comprehend the amount of force produced in just under 4 seconds!

There are no rockets or airplanes built by any government in the world that can accelerate from a standing start as fast as a Top Fuel Dragster or Funny Car!



DEFINITION OF ACCELERATION



One top fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows of stock cars at the Daytona 500.



It takes just 15/100ths of a second for all 6,000+ horsepower of an NHRA Top Fuel dragster engine to reach the rear wheels.



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.



A stock Dodge Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to drive the dragster's supercharger.



With 3,000 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 (stoichiometry: methodology and technology by which quantities of reactants and products in chemical reactions are determined) 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture of nitro methane, the flame front temperature measures 7,050 deg 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 halfway, the engine is dieseling from compression, plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1,400 deg 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.



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.



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



Top fuel engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light! Including the burnout, the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load.



The redline is actually quite high at 9,500 rpm.



Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimate $1,000.00 per second.



The current top fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.428 seconds for the quarter mile (11/12/06, Tony Schumacher, at Pomona , CA ). The top speed record is 336.15 mph as measured over the last 66' of the run (05/25/05 Tony Schumacher, at Hebron, OH ).



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 pass 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 1,320 foot long race course.



...... and that my friend, is ACCELERATION!

A 747 puts out horsepower in the many tens of thousands, but they're not rated that way. You have to convert thrust to horsepower. But I assure you that four large turbofan engines are more powerful than a dragster.

Where do people come up with this stuff? 

I did not see any reference to a dragster being more powerful than a 747, only that it accelerates faster and burns the same amount of fuel, get off your aviation high horse, nobody is making fun of your airplanes.  

[RP#62]

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.

I've seen this or a variation of it quoted many times and still have a problem with it.  It may be true, but I'd have to see the math.  Fully loaded or not, a 747 has four engines each producing around 53,000 lbs of thrust (depending on which engine type its using).  That equates to around 72,000 HP. At cruise, its sucking in around 200 lbs of air per second.

-RP

[The Anvil]

I did not see any reference to a dragster being more powerful than a 747, only that it accelerates faster and burns the same amount of fuel, get off your aviation high horse, nobody is making fun of your airplanes.  

"consumes jet fuel at the same rate with 25% less energy being produced."


You need to read it again. 

Unless the person who wrote it is talking about the fuel itself, but that's not a characteristic of the engine so it's irrelevant.

[DarkMeister]

A stock Dodge Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to drive the dragster's supercharger.

Whoah! Let's not go crazy here! I resemble that remark!  

[The Anvil]

Acceleration?  

It is my understanding that if you had a drag race that was 100 feet long, and it involved a jet plane, a fuel dragster, and panther or cheetah, the big cat would win.  The animal can accelerate to it's full speed in an instant, and beat any machine off the line.  

After that distance the power of the machines overtake the acceleration of the cat.

That might have been true at one time but tire technology has made top fuelers very efficient at putting power to the ground now. Even the most powerful of jet planes are relatively slow to accelerate from a standing start so that's definitely true.

Maybe it still is true. I'm just skeptical.

[Jess Tolbirt]

lets see 1 1/2 gallons of fuel per second equals 450 gallons of fuel for the first 5 minutes of flight..thats 900 gallons for 10 minutes.
i dont see any room for cargo if it flies coast to coast,,, i would be interested in seeing just exactly how much fuel a 747 uses at different intervals of a coast to coast flight.

[The Anvil]

lets see 1 1/2 gallons of fuel per second equals 450 gallons of fuel for the first 5 minutes of flight..thats 900 gallons for 10 minutes.
i dont see any room for cargo if it flies coast to coast,,, i would be interested in seeing just exactly how much fuel a 747 uses at different intervals of a coast to coast flight.

Jet engines use far more fuel during taxi and takeoff than it does at cruising altitude where they become very efficient. In fact, the higher the altitude the more efficient they become typically become, up until a point. So a 747 does indeed use an unbelievable amount of fuel on ground ops and at low altitude but that's only a small percentage of an entire flight's duration.

[Ricky-D]

When discussing speed especially acceleration and more so from a standing start you cannot discount a "rail-gun".

The Navy being told by the DOD to start curtailing the development of the rail-gun has fired the 1000th projectile recently and is achieving  speeds in the neighborhood of Mach-7

Now, you want to talk acceleration!   That rail-gun is in a whole different arena.

***

[The Anvil]

When discussing speed especially acceleration and more so from a standing start you cannot discount a "rail-gun".

The Navy being told by the DOD to start curtailing the development of the rail-gun has fired the 1000th projectile recently and is achieving  speeds in the neighborhood of Mach-7

Now, you want to talk acceleration!   That rail-gun is in a whole different arena.

***

That is some amazing stuff. The videos are really cool. There's no "propellant" but the superheated air causes flames and stuff anyway.

But it's not under it's own power so it's not really what we're talking about.

[Cruzen]

There are at least two of those statements that are false.  First not all the dragster horsepower goes to the rear wheels when the hammer is dropped so it is not getting all 6000hp at one time.  The trans is designed to slip off the line hence only about half is delivered at the start.

The second one that is wrong is about the Lingenfelter twin turbo Vette which has a top speed between 215 and 235 depending on how much boost is dialed in.  At 215 MPH the Vette is doing 315.3 feet per second.  At that rate it will cover the 1280 foot quarter mile in 4.18 seconds.  A 635hp ZR1 Corvette does around 206 mph and it will cover the quarter mile in 4.36 seconds.  A stock LS3 Corvette will do 178 and will cover the quarter mile in 5.056 so maybe the dragster can pass that but it would be closer than the eye could see or the drivers would be aware of.

[The Anvil]

There are at least two of those statements that are false.  First not all the dragster horsepower goes to the rear wheels when the hammer is dropped so it is not getting all 6000hp at one time.  The trans is designed to slip off the line hence only about half is delivered at the start.

The second one that is wrong is about the Lingenfelter twin turbo Vette which has a top speed between 215 and 235 depending on how much boost is dialed in.  At 215 MPH the Vette is doing 315.3 feet per second.  At that rate it will cover the 1280 foot quarter mile in 4.18 seconds.  A 635hp ZR1 Corvette does around 206 mph and it will cover the quarter mile in 4.36 seconds.  A stock LS3 Corvette will do 178 and will cover the quarter mile in 5.056 so maybe the dragster can pass that but it would be closer than the eye could see or the drivers would be aware of.

And while you're at it, try cornering that dragster.

[Serk]

Only marginally on topic at best, but whenever discussions of drag races (Stanley, you stay outta this! ) come up, I think of this classic video and get a chuckle...

Drag Race 11sec scooter v Trans Am	powered by Aeva

[art]

Acceleration?  

It is my understanding that if you had a drag race that was 100 feet long, and it involved a jet plane, a fuel dragster, and panther or cheetah, the big cat would win.  The animal can accelerate to it's full speed in an instant, and beat any machine off the line.  

After that distance the power of the machines overtake the acceleration of the cat.

I've heard the same thing but with a race horse for the first 100'

[f6john]

Top fuel engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light! Including the burnout, the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load.
     


     I've read this statement about ten times and it just doesn't compute.

[John Schmidt]

What really blows me away is the speeds achieved now. I used to run on the strip back in the early 50's and I can recall at the time some high powered engineers were going on record saying dragsters will never be able to attain a speed greater than 150 mph in the quarter mile. They claimed it was due to a bunch of stuff like friction, the ability to put the power to the ground, engine technology...all sorts of drivel. Wasn't long before our boy Don Garlits started to blow their theory out the window, so then it was stated "never will accelerate past 250 mph."  Moral of that story; don't tell a gearhead you can't do something. 

Heck, I was told you can't get HD controls to wire into the Honda main harness and have them work correctly. I didn't bother to read that book either.   

[BigMac NJ]

There are no rockets or airplanes built by any government in the world that can accelerate from a standing start as fast as a Top Fuel Dragster or Funny Car!



Nike Hercules


The missile (with booster) was launched 0.4 seconds ago, is accelerating at 25 times the force of earth's gravity, has risen 60 feet, and it is now going 210 miles per hour.
Four seconds from now, the missile will be:

going 1,700 miles per hour straight up,
separated from the booster, (the black flaming thing with the white fins),
turning (diving) towards the intercept point with the target,
starting the sustainer rocket engine to reach 2,700 miles per hour.
If the target is 90 miles approaching at mach 1.5, the missile will meet the target 60 miles away in 90 seconds

[Fudd]

Top fuel engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light! Including the burnout, the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load.
     


     I've read this statement about ten times and it just doesn't compute.

I figure at 9500 rpm, after 4.5 seconds the crankshaft would have made 712.5 revolutions.