<VV> Acceleration----NO CORVAIR

[kaczmarek at charter.net]

For all you go fast folks-

Acceleration

   _____

Discussion 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
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 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. A 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.

A 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!