Archie wrote:

Archie's Interesting nitro burning dragster facts:

       * One  dragster's 500-inch Hemi makes more horsepower
          than the first 8 rows at  Daytona.

       * 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.

      * Dual electronic 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

of it's 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  250 mph well before 1/2 track,

launch

        acceleration is closer to  8G's.

      * 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 read this

last sentence.

"F. J. Diekman" wrote:

Very nice, but what's the point?-- 

The guy that dies with the most expensive toys wins.

Paul Lamar

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