[AT] Fw: Food (Supercharged and Nitro Powered!) for Thought]

[CWI47 at comcast.net]

Thought you guys would like this. JC
John Cable
CABLEKNIVES of GR
Grand Rapids, MI
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Ben Rawls 
To: CWI47 at comcast.net 
Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2004 12:28 AM
Subject: [Fwd: Food (Supercharged and Nitro Powered!) for Thought]


John, I thought this was just up up your alley!

-------- Original Message -------- Subject:  Food (Supercharged and Nitro Powered!) for Thought 
      Date:  Mon, 14 Jun 2004 18:12:55 -0400 
      From:  "Dick Grover" <dgrover at kennesaw.edu> 
      To:  <ronagraham at comcast.net>,<ljhbrun at hotmail.com>, <jconk at mindspring.com>, <rawlsvet at worldnet.att.net> 



Dragster Acceleration 

* 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 1-1/2 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 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 (stoichiometry: methodology and technology by 
which quantities of reactants and products in chemical reactions are 
determined) 17:1 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 ½ 
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 
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 redline is actually quite high at 9500rpm. 
* 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 $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