[DeTomaso] THE DEFINITION OF ACCELERATION!!

[Jerry R Knotts]

Interestingly, a month or so ago I went to a show and shine at the local 
drag strip on a Thursday night.  I was the only one that showed up, but the 
track was rented to 3 or 4 teams that were testing and tuning.  I spent some 
time with a fellow dubbed "Turbo Tom Kitchens".  I was appauled at what I 
have missed in technology in the last 10 years or so.  He was running a 2002 
Camero with 2 big twin turbos, 435 cu in  SBC on alcohol.  He was using  3 
180 lb per hr injectors in each intake runner about 6 inches above the 
intake valve.  His tranny was a 5 speed with a torque converter instead of a 
clutch and a 10 solenoid shifter.  He was doing hole shots running about 250 
feet before shutting the engine off and coasting the rest of the way down 
the strip to be hauled back by a 4 wheeler.  Talked to him for awhile and 
finally followed him up to the track to watch one of his runs.  When the 
light changed the car squatted and launched hard.  He did a 1.01 60 foot and 
said by then he had shifted to second.  I watched him coast down the track 
after turning the engine of at the end of second gear.  He had traveled 
about 250 ft with the fire lit and his trap speed after coasting the quarter 
was 80 mph.  I was seriously impressed.

I never was that fast even in my dreams.

jerry
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dave" <dave at damardirect.com>
To: <gow2 at rc-tech.net>; <detomaso at realbig.com>
Cc: "JDeRyke at aol.com" <jderyke at aol.com>; "RCBSONS1 at aol.com" 
<rcbsons1 at aol.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2012 9:04 AM
Subject: [DeTomaso] THE DEFINITION OF ACCELERATION!!


> THE DEFINITION OF ACCELERATION!!
>
> One top fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower
> than the first 4 rows of stock cars at the Daytona 500.
>
> It takes just 15/100ths of a second for all 6,000+ horsepower of an NHRA
> Top Fuel dragster engine to reach the rear wheels.
>
> Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1-1/2 gallons of nitro
> methane per second.  A fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate
> but 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 of nitro methane, the flame front
> temperature measures 7,050 deg F.
>
> Nitro methane burns yellow.  The spectacular white flame seen above the
> stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, dissociated from atmospheric 
> water
> vapor by the searing heat of the 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 deg F. The engine can only be shut down by cutting the 
> fuel
> flow.
>
> If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro immediately 
> builds up in
> the affected cylinder 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 one 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 9,500 rpm.
>
> Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and
> for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimate $1,000.00 per 
> second.
>
> The current top fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.428 seconds for
> the quarter mile (11/12/06, Tony Schumacher, at Pomona , CA ). The top 
> speed
> record is 336.15 mph as measured over the last 66' of the run (05/25/05 
> Tony
> Schumacher, at Hebron , OH ).
>
> 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 pass 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.
>
> ... and that my friend, is ACCELERATION!
>
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