* One Top Fuel dragster makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows of the Daytona 500.
* At full throttle, a Top Fuel dragster consumes 11.5 gallons of Nitromethane per second; a fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate but produces 25% less energy.
* A stock 426 HEMI does not produce enough horsepower to drive a Top Fuel supercharger
* At full throttle the supercharger is ramming 3000 CFM of air into the cylinders. The mixture is so compressed that the engine is on the verge of hydraulic lock.
* Nitromethane burns yellow. The white flames seen above the exhaust stacks is actually Hydrogen, which has been dissociated from water by the heat of combustion.
* At stoichiometric, the nitromethane air/fuel ratio is 1.7:1. Flame front temperature is 7050 degrees.
* The dual magnetos produce 44 amps to each plug. This is enough current to arc weld.
* Spark plugs are totally consumed during a run. In fact, after half way, the engine is dieseling from the compression and the glow of the exhaust valves. After this point, the engine can only be shut down by cutting the fuel flow.
* To accelerate to over 300 MPH in 4.5 seconds the dragster must average 4 Gs. For the dragster to reach 200 MPH by half-track required 8 Gs.
* A Top Fuel engine only turns approximately 540 revolutions from light to light. Including the burnout, the engine must survive only 900 revolutions!
* Redline is quite high at 9500 RPM.
* Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew is working for free, and nothing blows up, each run costs $1000 per second.
Perspective:
So you take your specially tuned $140,000 Lingerfelter “Twin Turbo” Corvette, and start back about a mile or so, accelerating as fast as you can, reaching your top speed of 200 MPH. This is really moving and would be something anyone would be proud of. You’re approaching the starting line where the Top Fuel dragster is sitting – stopped – waiting for you. As you cross the starting line, the light turns green.
Within 3 seconds you are deafened by the incredible whine of the dragster, which has caught up to you. He passes and beats you to the end of the 1320-foot quarter mile.
THAT is acceleration …
