We went to Cayuga on Sunday to see the Nitro cars run! They are by far the coolest race cars on the planet! They make F1, Nascar etc all seem like they move in slow motion! How about these numbers.......0-60mph 1/10 of a second, 0-100mph in 1 second, 60 ft times .6 of a sec! they run the 1/8 mile in 3.31 sec and are already at 265mph! They pull 6 positive G's at the launch, 4 positive G's at mid track and 6 negative G's when the parachute deploys! We got about 10ft from the starting line when the Nitro funny cars were running. When they hit the gas, everything goes blurry and your insides shake. They make jet airplanes sound like they have mufflers! It is one thing every car guy/girl should experience once in their life. I have seen all kinds of different race cars live, but nothings like Nitromethane!

 

Everyone laughed at me when I proclaimed that you "Haven't seen anything until you've watched Top Tier Drag racing" - so I'm glad to see I have some company in my views

I've now been to 3 NHRA events, and it is nothing short of retarded. It's isn't so much something you watch, as it is something you feel and experience. When the lights go green there is an explosion of noise and power that makes it hard to breathe. When you are in the pits and there is a car idling, the Nitromethane burns your eyes and throat. It's awesome.

Somewhere I had a fact sheet about the NHRA top fuel guys. They had facts like:
A regular Hemi V8 out of a passanger car doesn't have enough power to run the blower on a top fuel engine.
The Spark plugs are burnt up by 1/2 track and the rest of the track the car is dieseling.
You can't pour fuel as fast as they use it.
The motor is on the constant verge of hydrolock on fuel.
A 2 car launch measures 3 or 4 on the richter scale.

All kinds like that. I'll look for it.

 

I have been to just about every automotive sporting discipline in the world and I have to agree that top level NHRA Fuel racing is the best spectacle ever.

It is the only racing where I look at the cars and go, nope can't do that LOL. They would have to put a Depends diaper on me the size of a garbage bag as I am sure my body would void itself at launch.

As Al and Nick said, when the cars launch you just open your mouth and hold your breath as you truly can feel the noise and fury. The sound is like a 4+ second explosion. Truly mind blowing.

Eric

 

Have you guys seen this vid?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyfGko6qb-4

 

Cool Video!

And for anyone that doubts the physical nature of this experience, I have a picture for you. I tried to take a picture of Top Fuelers launching, but everytime I tried all I got was this. It is that crazy!





Here's some of that email I was looking for:
MODERN NITRO FACTS

-One Top Fuel dragster's 500-inch Hemi makes more horsepower then the first 8 rows at the NASCAR Daytona 500.

-Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1 1/2 gallons of nitro per second, the same rate of fuel consumption as a fully loaded 747 but with 4 times the energy volume.

-The supercharger takes more power to drive then a stock hemi makes.

-Even with nearly 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into nearly solid form before ignition. Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock.

-A single top fuel dragster can be heard from 13 kilometers away and measure 2 on the richter scale.


-Dual magnetos apply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder.

-At stoichiometric (exact) 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture (for nitro), the flame front of nitromethane 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.

-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 off its fuel flow.

-If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in those cylinders and then explodes with a force that can blow cylinder heads off the block in pieces or blow the block in half.

-Dragsters twist the crank (torsionally) so far (20 degrees in the big end of the track) that sometimes cam lobes are ground offset from front to rear to re-phase the valve timing somewhere closer to synchronization with the pistons.

-To exceed 300mph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must accelerate at an average of over 4G's. But in reaching 200 mph well before 1/2 track, launch acceleration is closer to 8G's.

-On the tracks with shorter shorter shut-down area, many drivers shut off before the finish line, or even dual parachutes will not stop the car.

-If all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs $1000.00 per second.

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

 

I dont know where you compiled some of these facts, but at the PRI show last year I was talking to Don Garlits (the Richard Petty of Fuel Racing) and he was telling me TF dragster and Funny Cars launch at 6 g's. I had also heard this on TNN years ago when the late Steve Evans did a show called American Sports Cavalcade. They said the car consumes 15 gallons of fuel between the burnout and the the run. They took a supercharger of the day (1987) and spun it at about 6000rpm for 6 seconds and with 2 garden hoses feeding it, they overflowed a 10 or 15 gallon aquarium. In slow motion you could see the garden hoses collapse because they couldnt keep up the flow of water! Garlits said that if nothing goes wrong in a 4.5 second run, it cost about $25,000 US per pass. He also said that if you do the math the cars are making over 8,000 HP!!!!!!!!! BTW that video is incredible!!!!!!!!

 

the nitro cars are awesome!

Last year we got to see a few of them at grand bend, they were totally incredible.

Unfortunatly for out class, we (Sport Compact) were always scheduled right behind them - what a great way to clear the stands eh? We must've looked awesome running 11 and 12 second passes after seeing 4 and 5 second passes.

Another interesting fact:

Say you have a nice long road, you line a top fuel car up 1/4 mile from the finish line and a nascar 2 miles from it. Give the nascar a head start so that by the time it reaches the nitro car it's going 200MPH. When it passes the nitro car, the nitro car starts... Who's going to win the race? The nitro car, in 4.5 seconds will pass and beat the NASCAR that had a 200mph head start on it.

 

Haha - I can't vouch for the accuracy of those stats, it was just an email that a friend sent me. I'd be more inclined to believe Big Daddy though! That said, alot has changed since his days. A few years back they detuned all the engines for safety and dropped about a thousand HP. But the technology has meant they are still as fast. The email I got could have been stats from 1982 for all I know - it was meant to give people an idea of what they can do rather than a precise stat sheet. I'd like to see some official numbers though!

 

Got ya! "Big" said the cars were "at least 8000hp", I know a bunch of years ago they restricted the rear gear to 3.23 to slow them down when they were approaching 300mph, and they promptly went 320 after that! I know they have to run less % nitromethane, but that ended up INCREASING horsepower too!

 

I don't believe that you will ever find official numbers on Top Fuel Cars HP. The big issue is finding a dyno strong enough to handle the HP and rate of rpm acceleration that these motors run.

One small detail that hasn't been mentioned is that these engines become diesels (actually piston crown heat induced compression ignition) after they launch as the heat of the fuel and air compression and the piston top fire the charge. The only way to stop these motors is to turn off the fuel, sorta like run on in a regular piston engine that fires using the wight hot carbon deposits. All the spark does after launch is to supplement the compression ignition to ensure that it happens at the right point. Pretty cool!!!!!

 

Someone's having a senior moment... *points and laughs*

 

Duh, should read all of the posts...... He!! I still have 20 years until I am a senior and I can still whip all you whippersnappers butts.

Come on, line up all of you I can still take all of you on (spits on hands). Just give me a second to adjust my knee brace, back support and take my glasses and hearing aids out. LOL.

I now wish I had never played football.