Putting acceleration into perspective
 

This was discussed back in 2007, but I think it's worth another look...

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Amazing stuff. Thanks.

Yes, thanks for sharing!

That video just explained something to me that I was puzzled about.
The UK land speed record is less than a top fuel dragster's exit velocity.
But if the UK land speed record is measured over say, a flying KM...
The dragster, can it hold up?

I would guess not. The engine seems to be destroying itself in 1000 revolutions.

Interesting video. Thanks...

I've always been fascinated with Dragster tech. It's easily on par with Formula 1.

15 year old clip...but I like this view of the run.

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So, in the first video they mentioned that it was from 2003. A lot has changed since then. Even in 2007 they were still using the full 1/4 mile strip instead of 1000'. However, Britany Force has the current record for both ET and top speed at 338 MPH @ 1000'. The record for the 1/4 mile stands at a mere 333 MPH in 2003 for a 1/4 mile. That's a slightly higher speed in 320 feet less track.

Of course, ET's are lower now.

Since there are no known 10,000 HP conventional dynos, HP is calculated by data and physics.

There is currently a thread on PPOT talking about 0 to 60 times. Top Fuel and Funny Car do it in half a second.

The UK is a small island but we still own the world land speed record ;)

I've watched up close and personal a few things accelerate fast.....

Stood next to a F1 car launching on full power at the end of the pit lane and knelt behind a F1 inshore powerboat holding the engine cowl while aiming it for a race start :cool:

Compared to seeing a Euro (slow in comparison to a top level US car) top fuel dragster my F1 land and sea experiences were a non-event :eek:

Love the drags. I go to Ennis nearly every year. Sadly, it seems it is dying. Looks like there are only 14 top fuel at this weeks Houston race. And the field wasn't full last week.

It'd be interesting to see a video comparing a top fuel dragster to the space shuttle.
Unfortunately all the videos of a space shuttle launch I had ever seen were slow mo.
My mind was not wired for how short what I was about to see would be.
Seeing it in person, even if 10 miles away, wow.
It did not waste time getting to several hundred miles per hour, then it hit a cloud layer and went out of view.

The shuttle limits it acceleration for pilot and passenger comfort.
It'd be capable of more at full tilt.
Just amazing.

Modern drag racing doesn’t do it for me. I like to go to the nostalgia drags at Bowling Green, KY. There are hundreds of cool old cars.

The shuttle went from 0 to 17,500 MPH is 8.5 minutes. The 0 to 60 MPH is likely not that impressive. Like all the "races" you have seen against a car and a jet fighter. Almost any car can out run a jet aircraft for the first hundred feet.

The sound alone of top fuel dragsters is worth going to see them in person (with hearing protection if close) and no video can represent the astonishing performance of one.

I was never an NHRA fan but when I was working as an air ambulance pilot there were a few times when we were requested to be on stand by at nearby races. We would have pit passes and access to the start line. Standing next to a top fuel car leaving the start line is an incredible experience - the sound and more so, the feel in your body is indescribable. If you had plaque in your arteries I believe it could all be broken up as the sound waves hitting your body were fantastic.

While in the pits we got to watch the crew completely disassemble the engine in a matter of minutes right after a run. I believe they went through a couple cases of brake cleaner in the process.

I've driven plenty of fast cars, even some stupid-fast cars. Been around alot of different machines that make monstrous power.

Thought I had a pretty good grasp on what horsepower was...until I was right near the rail by a top-fueler doing pass. Rendered everything that I thought was fast or powerful as a hard reset. So much power that it literally feels like someone punching you in the chest when it goes by. There is just nothing like it...

angela

I have an old NHRA tee shirt that says "gasoline is for washing parts. Alcohol is for drinking. Real race cars run on nitromethane".

I had the opportunity to help wrench on a nitro funny car in the late 1980's to early 1990's. This was a decidedly small time effort, relying on unpaid volunteers like myself. We did hold the funny car mph record at Denver's Mile High Raceway for over a year, though.

We had a real "mad scientist" on the team, one of the owners. I met him through work, where his "real job" was running N/C machinery. At home in his spare time, he managed to whittle out a three valve cylinder head that fit the old 392 style blocks. We were running the old Donovan 417, so these heads fit that block as well. One intake and two exhausts, if I remember correctly. They were on the car that day in Denver.

That earned Crowel "Rocky" Jewell a cover story in National Dragster, along with a photo of him holding one of his heads. His big plan was to quit work and make those for a living. I'm not sure why it never worked out.

One Saturday morning found us at Seattle International Raceway (now Pacific Raceways) waiting for a new driver to show up. We were supposed to make some licensing passes. He never showed. So, there we were, car prepped, NHRA and safety folks on hand (it was a bracket racing day anyway, so they would have been there regardless). So, Rocky says "every last one of you has said you would give your left nut to drive this car..."

So, well, yeah - I tried on the fire suit. It fit. So did the helmet. A couple other guys tried them on as well. It all fit every one of us well enough to make it work... We wound up pushing the car back into the trailer. Lots of tough talk and bravado until the real opportunity to do it presented itself.

Never underestimate the commitment of these drivers. Or, maybe more accurately, the need to be committed. It's the real deal. I was around that car for just about two full race seasons in our Division Six, back when they still ran divisional fuel races. Our drivers never got hurt. Others did. Never killed, but some pretty frightful injuries. I had a young wife and two young boys at home at the time. You do think about those things when someone asks if you wanna drive this car... At least normal people do...

That's a great story, Jeff!

To get real about acceleration top fuel is fast, but nothing like the the Air Force. The took it to the next level back in 1954.

https://vimeo.com/292235615

This is where the development of seat-belts really evolved.

December 10, 1954, John Paul Stapp, facing forward, was accelerated to a speed of 632 mph, breaking the land speed record and making him "the fastest man on earth." The sled was then slowed by water, and Stapp took 46.2 g for 1.1 seconds.

These tests were what NASA used to figure out if astronauts would survive.

^^
This. EXACTLY this!!

There is nothing that can prepare you for the onslaught when you are there in person on or near the starting line.

The overwhelming feeling I get when I watch these cars is that I cannot even fathom strapping myself to one of the them and going all out. The violence is just unbelievable. The pro drivers of these cars must be the bravest people on the planet, as far as I'm concerned.

Ive been to the US nationals a couple times. As said above, there is nothing like being near a fuel car at full throttle. What amazes me is, John Force won funny car 2 weeks ago at the age of 72. Hard to believe he can have his stuff so together at that age.

The place to spectate at a nitro race (as far as I'm concerned) is a few yards before the lights, when the cars are still accelerating hard and are at just about max velocity.

I tremble for the drivers in that moment, because they are going so fast and it is so loud
that it's impossible to imagine how anyone can control something that powerful.

At one of the recent Porsche Parades, Michelin hosted a drive and compare event. The had two new Cayman S models and we got to do a launch control drag race. We swapped cars to make it even and that was the different tire compounds, and it is a blast to do launch control in a car that I don't have to pay for.

I beat two guys, so several runs, but I was beaten. The overall winner with the best time was a "old man" in his late 70s that was a former NHRA drag racer. Many years of practice made him impossible to beat.

The Cayman S is by no means a drag racer, but it is ton faster than my antique 85 911 with a 915 transmission and ME as owner and provider of labor and funds for all repairs. The Michelin guys said they do the same type of event for other makes at their conventions. He has only the Porsches survive a week of launches with zero issues. The other makes usually have at least one failure.

This is acceration:

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Whats that saying about old age and treachery over youthful exuberance ?? Must be true.

I don't actually think that what you see with the space shuttle is in slow motion, and it's not slow. It just looks slow because our brain doesn't fully appreciate the scale.

But yes, the acceleration is limited to 3G. It's still at least 2.25x faster than what the quickest street car can manage, but it doesn't begin to touch a drag launch which approaches 8G so almost 3x that of the space shuttle.

https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/466711main_AP_ST_ShuttleAscent.pdf <-- This link has a chart that shows the Time (s), Altitude(m), Velocity(m/s), and Acceleration(m/s2) over the first 520 seconds of the STS-121 launch.

I think the really impressive part is that it probably averages 2.5G of acceleration for minutes which gets it up to 17500mph.