KTMrad 508 Posted December 5, 2012 Subject: Acceleration explained: just in case you didn’t see this before! For those who love numbers, engineers, speed freaks and those who think they have gone too fast at one time or another. This puts Corvette performance in perspective. This article mentions Lingenfelter twin turbo powered Z06. Read this thru slowly and try to comprehend the amount of force produced in just under 4 seconds! The last paragraph puts it all into perspective ! There are no rockets or airplanes built by any government in the world that can accelerate from a standing start as fast as a Top Fuel Dragster or Funny Car….and that includes any aircraft launched by a catapult from an aircraft carrier. Nothing can compare….. 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 (0.15) of a second for all 6,000+ horsepower (some believe 8,000 HP is more realistic - there are no dynomometers capable of measuring) of an NHRA Top Fuel dragster engine to reach the rear wheels. 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 of nitromethane, the flame front temperature measures 7,050 deg F. (Oxy-acetylene on "cut" is 6,300) 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 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 one 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 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 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 instant. 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 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Brett 0 Posted December 5, 2012 Impressive comparisons! But it takes 4.5 seconds to go 1/4 mile at 200 MPH, so the Vette gets passed right at the end. No where near the 3 seconds the article mentions. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Afry 1 Posted December 6, 2012 Now you know what riding a Super Enduro is like....lol. Well maybe not quite the same.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PastaPilot 17 Posted December 6, 2012 Impressive comparisons! But it takes 4.5 seconds to go 1/4 mile at 200 MPH, so the Vette gets passed right at the end. No where near the 3 seconds the article mentions. You're assuming the Vette was not also accelerating through the last 1/4 mile of the race. The wording is vague but it only stated the vette met the dragster at an honest 200mph. Look up stats for The Texas Mile I think the Lingy vette did 240-250 in the standing mile. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Brett 0 Posted December 7, 2012 Impressive comparisons! But it takes 4.5 seconds to go 1/4 mile at 200 MPH, so the Vette gets passed right at the end. No where near the 3 seconds the article mentions. You're assuming the Vette was not also accelerating through the last 1/4 mile of the race. The wording is vague but it only stated the vette met the dragster at an honest 200mph. Look up stats for The Texas Mile I think the Lingy vette did 240-250 in the standing mile. Well actually it’s the article assuming the Vette maintains a 200 MPH pace to finish the 1/4 mile in exactly 4.5 seconds. The current dragster record is 4.4 seconds, so it passes the Vette right at the end. If it kept accelerating, the Vette would finish first, nullifying their point. If it passed the Vette “within 3 seconds” as the article states, the Vette would actually need to slow down. So my point is, the passing takes the full 4.5 seconds, which is “No where near the 3 seconds the article mentions”. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CalNub 0 Posted December 7, 2012 Hahaha. I love how you guys are splitting hairs about this. On the other hand, I now have a new appreciation for dragsters... not that I feel compelled to go watch a race, just that I appreciate someone else's interest in doing so. :)/> Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
