[DeTomaso] NPC- Max acceleration

[JDeRyke at aol.com]

I got out of drag racing a LOOONG time ago, and the team I worked with 
never used fuel, only gasoline- which was bad enough. But here's a few thoughts:
1- no dynomometer outside of General Electric's Navy shipyards will 
actually measure an engine making over about 1200 bhp. All others are 'estimated'. 
At one dyno test in Northern CA, a big-block Chev engine was run up to only 
3000 rpms/450 bhp (the dyno's limit) and the software "calculated" the peak 
power at higher rpms. 
2- Fueler builders use aluminum rods because the RODS compress or shorten 
in length under very high loads, acting like shock absorbers and allowing the 
combination to survive one pass (usually). Steel rods simply won't work in 
a fueler- they're too stiff and things like crankshafts then break early. 
Titanium rods not only compress like aluminum, they stretch at high rpms, 
increasing the compression and power on the top end. They were known as "rubber 
rods". Unfortunately, they also cost 6-8X that of an aluminum rod and still 
wouldn't reliably make 2 complete passes before shattering from the 
work-hardening. 
3- the blocks have no water jackets because the time of running is so short 
and because the cylinder walls 'balloon' during running from the pressure. 
The liners need block support to minimize this. Even with solid aluminum 
blocks, steel 1/2" wall cylinder liners swell during running, which is why 
rings and pistons only last 1.0 run (usually), and oil pan explosions from 
unburned nitro blown past the rings cause many of those spectacular top-end 
flamers. 
4- I have a famous shot of an early   Fuel Altered actually running over 
his own crankshaft, when the stock-block 392 Hemi split horizontally and blew 
the entire reciprocating assembly down onto the track. This may be where the 
old saying -'tripping over your own crank'- comes from.
5- And when things go right for once and the thing actually completes a 
full pass, you gotta stop it. What forced champion fuel-driver Joe Amato to 
retire a decade ago was not exactly age; he developed separated retinas in both 
eyes from the constant shock of the parachute openings! Climbing out of a 
Fueler totally blind has a way of getting your attention.... Doctors have a 
few ways of repairing such damage (one is laser spot-welding inside your 
eyeball!) but no guarantees on future fixes, so he signed off. It's possible 
that human endurance, not engine technology will be the limiting factor in drag 
racing.
Glad I'm gone and my friends all survived- J Deryke