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OT: Horsepower

13 posts by 12 people · 03 Sep 2004 04:12 UTC - 14 Jan 2005 20:04 UTC

Rich 03 Sep 2004 04:12 UTC#32493
Here are some interesting statistics regarding top fuel dragsters - with engines generating over 5000hp. One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500. * Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1� gallons of nitromethane 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 supercharger. * 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 lock at full throttle. * At the stoichiometric 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitromethane the flame front temperature 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. * 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 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 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 at 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 red-line is actually quite high at 9500 rpm. * The Bottom Line; Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated US $1,000.00 per second. The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.441 seconds for the quarter mile (10/05/03, Tony Schumacher). The top speed record is 333.00 mph (533 km/h) as measured over the last 66' of the run (09/28/03 Doug Kalitta). Putting all of this into perspective: You are driving the average $140,000 Lingenfelter "twin-turbo" powered Corvette Z06. Over a mile up the road, a Top Fuel dragster is staged and ready to launch down a quarter mile strip as you pass. You have the advantage of a flying start. You run the 'Vette hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line and past the dragster at an honest 200 mph. The 'tree' goes green for both of you at that moment. The dragster launches and starts after you. You keep your foot down hard, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums and within 3 seconds the dragster catches and passes you. He beats you to the finish line, a quarter mile away from where you just passed him. Think about it, from a standing start, the dragster had spotted you 200 mph and not only caught, but nearly blasted you off the road when he passed you within a mere 1320 foot long race course. That, folks, is acceleration.
RubberGoat 03 Sep 2004 07:42 UTC↳ reply to Rich#32498
amazing stuff. Have you read Don Garlits' book? That was an eye-opener on how scientific the process of speed is, yet at first they didn't know for sure what worked and what didn't case in point - the slipping clutch was found to be beneficial when a guy subbed in for an injured driver and was too tall - when they adjusted the cockpit so he could take his foot off the clutch he didn't go as fast! -- - RubberGoat - gummiged "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!" - Dr. Strangelove "Don't take this the wrong way, but genetically you're a Cul-De-Sac" - Bernard Black to Manny, (Black Books) "Rich" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:SaSZc.58786$A8.5948@edtnps89... Here are some interesting statistics regarding top fuel dragsters - with engines generating over 5000hp. One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500. * Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1� gallons of nitromethane 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 supercharger. * 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 lock at full throttle. * At the stoichiometric 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitromethane the flame front temperature 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. * 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 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 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 at 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 red-line is actually quite high at 9500 rpm. * The Bottom Line; Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated US $1,000.00 per second. The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.441 seconds for the quarter mile (10/05/03, Tony Schumacher). The top speed record is 333.00 mph (533 km/h) as measured over the last 66' of the run (09/28/03 Doug Kalitta). 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 past 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 1320 foot long race course. That, folks, is acceleration.
Dan_Leach wrote: > Thats nowt. A saturn V rocket has 360 million HP on full throttle :) > Thats more than all the racecars in the world :-) That may be, but it's no GPL. Don McCorkle
Dan Leach 03 Sep 2004 11:01 UTC↳ reply to Rich#32505
Thats nowt. A saturn V rocket has 360 million HP on full throttle :) Thats more than all the racecars in the world :-)
Yeah..... But it has no grip... EL "Dan_Leach" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... > Thats nowt. A saturn V rocket has 360 million HP on full throttle :) > Thats more than all the racecars in the world :-) > >
EL wrote:
Quoted text (16 lines)> Yeah..... > > But it has no grip... > > EL > > "Dan_Leach" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > news:[email hidden]... > >>Thats nowt. A saturn V rocket has 360 million HP on full throttle :) >> Thats more than all the racecars in the world :-) >> >> > > >
and the suspension is rock hard.... -- I'm Richard "ZZ" Busch, and I approved this message. Member: Screamers Racing League OAO MARA TransAm GPL Rank + 17.410 MoGPL Rank + 318.294 N2003 Rank -18.8060 ---------------- Remember racecar is racecar spelled backward ----------------- ----== Posted via Newsfeed.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==---- http://www.newsfeed.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! >100,000 Newsgroups ---= 19 East/West-Coast Specialized Servers - Total Privacy via Encryption =---
On Fri, 3 Sep 2004 12:01:37 +0100, "Dan_Leach" <[email hidden]> wrote: >Thats nowt. A saturn V rocket has 360 million HP on full throttle :) > Thats more than all the racecars in the world :-) > "On full throttle"? Does a Saturn V has anything else but full throttle? It's a friggin' gigant fireworks! /petern
"Dan_Leach" <[email hidden]> wrote in news:2pr0peFo0f46U1@uni- berlin.de: > Thats nowt. A saturn V rocket has 360 million HP on full throttle :) > Thats more than all the racecars in the world :-) Power is nothing without control ;) Alex.
alexti 04 Sep 2004 02:35 UTC#531913
berlin.de: Power is nothing without control ;) Alex.
Peter Nilsson wrote: >>Thats nowt. A saturn V rocket has 360 million HP on full throttle :) >>Thats more than all the racecars in the world :-) > "On full throttle"? Does a Saturn V has anything else but full > throttle? It's a friggin' gigant fireworks! I *think* they may have had a throttle-back function, if only for going through Max Q... Still, as an image of RAW POWER, it still stands tall. Its brakes on the other hand, *really* sucked though! ;) Regards, Rudy -------------------- GPLRank: -23
Peter Nilsson <[email hidden]> wrote in news:[email hidden]: > "On full throttle"? Does a Saturn V has anything else but full > throttle? It's a friggin' gigant fireworks! > > /petern I beleive the rocket nozzles had some degree of control, not movement like the big three rocket nozzles on the Space Shuttles, but the width of the opening could be regulated and thus some degree of control could be acheived. I'm pretty sure the Moon Shots had some near earth manuvers while accending. Again, not to the extant of the shuttle's roll and throttle capabilities but the Magic Candle Ride to orbit was not just a 100% burn. dave henrie
At 360 Million Horsepower does it matter ? :) -Larry "EL" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:sN0_c.55597$[email hidden]... > Yeah..... > > But it has no grip... > > EL

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