NHRA Top Fuel

[TheMentat]

Upon the recommendation of a buddy of mine, I decided to venture out to Kent, WA for the NHRA National series event.

Now, I should say that until this weekend, I thought I had borne witness to some pretty impressive racing machines, having been to several F1, Champcar, and ALMS events. Boy was I wrong...

The first time those Top Fuel cars simultaneously hit the throttle, I almost peed myself. Nothing could have prepared me for the sound of unleashing a combined 16,000 hp up close. It literally shakes you to the core.

It honestly sounds as if these guys have figured out how to power their cars from the fury of God himself! If you haven't seen one of these before, it should definitely be high up on your list.

Some more factoids:

- These cars compete in a 1/4 mile (0.4 km) race and complete it in less than 4.5 seconds at upwards of 330 mph (530 km/h)


- A Top Fuel dragster accelerates from 0 to 100 mph (160 km/h) in less than 0.8 second, subjecting the driver to a force about 5.7 times his weight, and almost 11 times quicker than it takes a production Porsche 911 Turbo to reach the same speed.

- At top engine speed, the exhaust gases escaping from the open headers produce about 800 pounds-force (3.6 kilonewtons) of downforce

[Jim Bremner]

getting the popcorn ready for the mi-optic flame fest!

[Jims5543]

Went to the Gatornationals many ears ago. They were flirting with 300MPH when we were there and had just broke the 5 second mark. This was about 18 years ago.

The sound those top fuel cars put out makes your hair follicles tighten up. Its the most bizzare feeling I have ever felt.

I am not a big drag racing fan but I recomend everyone go to one of these at least once. Its like the start of an Indy race ofr NASCAR event, not a big fan of either but definatly a do once in your life deal.

Also, go stand at the finish line. Its a really wild scene. You watch the car jump at the starting line and you can focus on it for the first 60' or so then it moves so fast as it comes at you and passes at 300+MPH you cannot keep up with it.

[TheMentat]

Originally posted by Jim Cesiro
I am not a big drag racing fan but I recomend everyone go to one of these at least once. Its like the start of an Indy race ofr NASCAR event, not a big fan of either but definatly a do once in your life deal.

my thoughts exactly...

[madmmac]

I am about 12 miles away from PNR(as the crow flies)and we can hear the cars running for their few second bursts down the 1/4 mile.

Yep, you really need to experience it, if only once.

[kang]

I went to one of these 20 years or so ago. Yes, they are loud, but not loud when compared to a blower explosion! One of them exploded a blower maybe 60 off the line. I was right opposite it in the stands. It felt like an earthquake.

I also remember standing next to one of the top fuel cars in the pits when they started it up. I had ear plugs and my hands over my ears, and it was still painful to my ears. Then the nitro fumes hit my eyes and I had to get outta there!

[Superman]

I missed them again this year, though I am just a few miles down the road. Yes indeed, if anyone flames this discussion, you can conclude they have not witnessed an NHRA top fuel launch. It is a one-of-a-kind experience. No matter how far you sit away, it is a full-body experience. The Prostock cars are much faster and louder than the street rods. The Alcohol cars are MUCH louder and faster than the Prostocks. And.........the top fuelers are WAY WAY WAY outlandish compared to the alcohol cars.

Everyone....please go exprience this once. It is similar to a space shuttle launch. Before you dismiss this remark......you need to actually see and hear these cars before you comment.

A top fuel dragster drinks fuel faster than it comes out of an ordinary gas pump.

The (nitroglycerine and methane) fuel is compressed into a near-solid.

[TheMentat]

More factoids:


- One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows of NASCARS at the Daytona 500.

- Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1-1/2 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's supercharger.

- With 3,000 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 (stoichiometry: methodology and technology by which quantities of reactants and products in chemical reactions are determined) 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitromethane, the flame front temperature measures 7,050 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 halfway, the engine is dieseling from compression, plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1,400 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 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.

- Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated $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 your Carrera GT. 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 GT 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 1,320 foot long race course.

That folks, is ACCELERATION

[Superman]

When I did go to the drags, the competition between the pit crews was also interesting. For bragging rights, these teams compete in engine rebuild contests. The engine is started (to ensure it is all together) and shut off at the start of the competition and the engine is restarted at the end of the competition, signaling the win. In between, the crew strips the engine down to a block and an crankshaft. The blower, cylinder heads, pistons......everything else is removed except the crankshaft. And then the engine is reassembled and restarted. I vaguely recall that the winning time was somewhere hear 4.5 minutes for all this!

[nostatic]

At our instructor clinic on Saturday Cass Whitehead, who instructs at the Porsche Driving Experience, said that he didn't think much of drag racing until he went to a race and they let him stand behind the cars. He said for one thing, he'd never do that again (due to the noise), but also he gained tremendous respect for the driving ability of the guys. The cars do NOT go in a straight line, and they are leaving rubber down almost the whole course. They are managing to keep the rear wheels in an almost costant state of slight wheelspin at the edge of traction, and keep it pointed in one direction (hopefully).

[sammyg2]

No nitroglycerin involved, different animal.

From wikepedia:
Nitromethane is an organic compound with the chemical formula CH3NO2. It is the simplest organic nitro compound. It is a slightly viscous, highly polar liquid commonly used as a solvent in a variety of industrial applications such as in extractions, as a reaction medium, and as a cleaning solvent. As an intermediate in organic synthesis, it is used widely in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, pesticides, explosives, fibers, and coatings. It also finds use as a racing fuel.

Nitromethane is used as a fuel in racing, particularly drag racing, to provide more power. In this context, it is commonly referred to as "nitro" or "fuel".

The oxygen in the molecular structure of nitromethane enables it to burn with much less atmospheric oxygen in comparison to hydrocarbons such as gasoline. Part of the oxygen needed for combustion is carried by nitromethane itself. At stoichiometric the combustion will be as follows:

4CH3NO2 + 3O2 �¨ 4CO2 + 6H2O + 2N2
14.6 kg of air are needed to burn one kg of gasoline, but only 1.7 kg of air are needed to burn one kg of nitromethane. Since an engine�fs cylinder can only contain a limited amount of air on each stroke, 8.7 times more nitromethane than gasoline can be burned in one stroke. However, nitromethane has a lower energy density. Gasoline provides about 42-44 MJ/kg, nitromethane provides only 11.3 MJ/kg. This would indicate that it with nitromethane is possible to generate about 2.3 times the power of gasoline. This is however not the complete story, nitromethane can also be used as a monopropellant. Without additional oxygen nitromethane will combust according to:

4CH3NO2 �¨ 4CO + 4H2O + 2H2 + 2N2
Nitromethane has a laminar combustion velocity of approx. 0.5 m/s, that is somewhat higher than gasoline and makes the fuel suitable to engines running at high speed. Somewhat higher is also the flame temperature at about 2400�‹C. The high heat of vaporisation of 0.56 MJ/kg together with the high fuel flow does however provide a high cooling of the incoming charge (about twice that of methanol), resulting in reasonably low temperatures. In a Top Fuel dragracing engine this alone will provide the cooling of the engine.

Nitromethane is usually used with rich air/fuel mixtures. This is partly because nitromethane can provide power even in the absence of atmospheric oxygen, as described above, but it's also because nitromethane tends to produce severe knock and pre-ignition. Rich mixtures do however cause ignition problems and a lower combustion speed.

When rich air/fuel mixtures are used, hydrogen and carbon monoxide will be two of the combustion products, when these and any unburned fuel comes into contact with the oxygen in the atmosphere at the end of the exhaust pipes they often ignite. The result is spectacular flames from the exhaust system.



BTW, if you think seeing them in person is a thrill, try running one of those engines on fuel directly behind you in an 18' flatbottom boat. I never got past about 40% nitro but that was more than enough.
Back in 1985 I was paying roughly $31 a gallon for the stuff, no idea what it costs nowadays.

[arcsine]

Experientially, right up there on the surreal-meter for me, right next to skydiving. I was standing next to the fence just in front of the start line in 1981 at SIR when Gene Snow's blower let go on the launch. The pressure wave pushed us all back a foot or so when it did and the blower continued 100 ft in the air before crashing down to the track.

The sound and speed were amazing enough then, cannot imagine what it would be like today.

[Jeff Higgins]

Ah yes, Top Fuel. I have been a rabid fan all of my life. This was the first year I can remember that I did not go see them at SIR (I'm recovering from a bit of soreness sustained in a car wreck). These things should top the list of must-see for anyone who considers himself a gearhead of any kind. Simply unbelievable on so many levels.

Imagine if your chest were a speed bag and Mike Tyson was taking a light workout on it. A pair of top fuel cars coming out of the hole will make you feel just like that. They will literally make your face shake, along with your entire body. Ever watch the Blue Angels? One top fuel car would drown out all of them, on afterburner, in unison.

Todd is right; they go anything but straight. They don't even stage them straight; they are pointed several degrees right. They hit so hard coming out of the hole that the drivers cannot even see; Connie Kalita says they are going purely on instinct for the first couple hundred feet. And they do look for a certain amount of "tire speed" as they call it; it is like the "slip angle" we are familiar with when cornering a tire; best grip is when it is sliding just ever so. Too much in top fuel is called "black tracking", and you can see two black stripes all the way down the track. It is said they hit 50 mph on the first full tire rotation out of the hole.

The driver cannot shut the car off, but not because they diesel after losing the spark plugs. Both plugs fire all the way down the track on most runs. They are dual plugged for different reasons than we would dual plug; the second one is a back-up. They run just fine on one. They do often lose one on a run, sometimes both in the same cylinder. You can see immediately when they "drop a cylinder"; the fire goes out and it turns into a nitro sprinkler, with raw fuel just spraying out the pipe.

The reason the driver cannot shut it down is purely NHRA safety rules. No fuel lines or electrical circuts, or connections to either, are allowed in the cockpit with the driver. It has to run out of fuel to shut down. If you ever see one getting shut down on the line or in the bleach box, you will notice a crew member has to do it from the outside.

Anyway, it's great good fun to watch these guys. It has, like all motorsports, gotten very specialized and sophisticated. More so than you might think; check them out some time.

[RANDY P]

I was supposed to go Sunday, but got my plans derailed.

Top Fuel is a kick in the ass, so are top fuel flat bottom boats. Boats are actually cooler to watch..

[TheMentat]

FWIW... if you, like I, are more interested in the "spectacle" than the sporting aspects of it, it is probably better to go on the Saturday of one of these events. It seems that on Sunday, most of the cars are already eliminated by 1:00. You'd probably get to see alot more Top Fuel racing on a Saturday when they are doing the first rounds of eliminations.

[}{arlequin]

yeah but can they run the corkscrew?

just kidding. i never did it but would also like to experience that in person. at least once.

[RANDY P]

mid track your vision blurs from the sound of the engines - it's that loud. My favorite class is Pro Stock - it's a little easier to relate to.

Top fuel cars, they fire 'em up on alky, then switch to Nitromethanol after it's run for a few seconds - I never miss a test fire in the pits when I go - It's wild. The pits are where you get your cool ideas for street rods and bad ass dually trucks - they're everywhere at the races

[Jeff Higgins]

All pro class (top fuel, funny car, pro stock) elimination rounds are always on Sunday. You are right though, in that if you just want to see them run, Saturday is far better. Two rounds of pro qualifying means every car runs twice instead of the field getting halved in every round. Plus, they do run the first round of alcohol cars and lots of comp eliminator kind of stuff. There is much more going on on a Saturday.

[sammyg2]

LOL, unfortunately top fuel flatbottoms went the way of the dinosaur. They are all retired or dead.
Nowadays they run top alcohol flats but no fuel flats that I know of.
They still run top fuel hydros but it aint the same, flatbottoms gotta be flown to go fast. Plus they have full capsules instead of parachutes packed on the back of their necks. Pansies

Jeff, you sure about that fuel shutoff in top fuel? I thought they had a lever in the cokpit to shut off the fuel. I don't know where i got that idea, maybe it's just something I assumed.

[Hugh R]

"the fury of God" is very descriptive. I hadn't gone in 25 years and went a few years ago. The pressure wave that goes through you is llike nothing you can imagine.