Never knew they offered anything like that at those speedsOriginally Posted by Mike Parish
Never knew they offered anything like that at those speeds
I've never seen or heard of it, not at those speeds anyway.
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It’s the clutch pacs. Another thing most never think about—— the tires growing, it changes the final ratio tremendously. They are one run wonders, not a cheap sport
If im not mistake at a certain point down the track the spark plugs arent doing anything they are dieseling.
I read an article that said that you cant shut them off, they need to run out of fuel and still diesel for a bit.
Only way to shut them down.
They have a remote control shut off switch a crew member operates.
http://competitionplus.com/drag-raci...-safety-device
Ok so do they shut them off after every pass? even without an incident or just let them run out of fuel?
It is hard to believe they can create enough friction to transfer that much torque!
One part of creating that friction is they apply traction compound to the track that makes the surface extremely sticky. It is so sticky that it is easy to walk right out of your shoes if they aren’t tied tightly.
I am amazed at how the crew chiefs can balance all the adjustments needed for the constantly changing atmospheric and track conditions.
The clutches in the fuel cars slip is the word I will use and lock up on down the track. Other wise they would just burn the tires off. If you ever watch the real early days the fuel cars smoked the tires all the way down the quarter mile. I wish they still ran the full quarter mile. But the speeds r to great. I would have rather seen the NHRA just limit the percentage of nitro and let them run the full quarter mile.
My understanding is that they cut the distance back because a driver was killed because in part to inadequate runoff room at the end of the track. IMO they should have mandated additional runoff room an not go to tracks that did not meet the new requirement.
Speed gains in the last 10 to 15 years caused them to basically run out of the track at the land locked tracks so in order to be able to still run them there they opted for 1,000 feet. Now they are running faster then they were at the full 1/4 mile.
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Yes, over 10,000 horsepower. Latest estimates put it at 12,000. Don’t think that they hear anything like what a bystander would. Ears are plugged and some even tape their ears. In a dragster the engine is behind the driver so it wouldn’t be as loud as a Funny Car. I guess the loudest noise is when one of them detonates and tosses the blower. I have driven a lot of Rail Cars and the noise isn’t as bad as my 900 HP bracket car was. If you haven’t seen one live in person you will never be able to understand the sound they make. At idle they sound like popcorn popping. A very big bag of popcorn!
Those funny cars have to be one of the most intimidating machines to operate for a novice.
I have fished on South Holston several times while nhra was at Thundervalley in Bristol.It is 15 miles away to the lake and you can here them run.
Scott Kalitta son of Connie Kalitta was killed when his engine blew and he had a firy crash. Then they changed the distance to 1000 feet.
It was amazing. When I made that run I actually had two crankbaits in the water and one got hit just as I let off the gas...
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They are letting novice run T/F and F/C now??
in my files somewhere I have a picture of a young lady (16) that just moved up to Alter. She put down 189 mph in the 1/8.
I am talking about someone that may be an experienced racer that gets in a fuel funny car for the first time.They are letting novice run T/F and F/C now??
in my files somewhere I have a picture of a young lady (16) that just moved up to Alter. She put down 189 mph in the 1/8.
It's about 150 dB at 200 feet. For comparison sake, a jet fighter aircraft in full burner is about 130 dB at 50 feet. Every 10 dB is double the volume. So 150 dB is 4x the volume of 130 dB.
They are loud. A Top Fuel engine at full power will cause permanent hearing damage without ear protection. At the right angle and distance from the pipes where you would receive the full effect of the sound waves without attenuation, 150 dB is enough to cause internal damage in your body as well. Fortunately, nobody is directly above the cars when they run to receive that full effect, so it is attenuated somewhat. But it still hurts if you're standing right by the fence.
Top Fuel engines are the most powerful piston engines, per unit of displacement, ever built by the human race. As someone else posted, they actually do have a life expectancy of less than 1,000 revolutions of the crankshaft at full power. The horsepower is calculated, not measured with a dyno. They use the physics calculations for acceleration of a car with 2,000 lbs of mass and apply the formulas for how much horsepower to produced to do that. Example, one SAE horsepower is 33,000 lbs lifted one foot in one minute, or 550 lb-ft of work done per second. That can be applied horizontally against several G's (1 G is 32 ft/sec^2 acceleration) of acceleration. Then the calculated losses in tire slippage and friction are applied to come up with an approximate amount of horsepower produced at the flywheel. These calculations are done every run to track the effects density altitude (temperature and humidity of the air), and track friction coefficient to come up with the setup in the car before it makes the run.
Some track and air conditions simply can't use it all, so the setup with the weights on the Crower clutch fingers, ignition advance curve, and fuel pump pressure is adjusted to match the track. On a good day where the full power of the engine can be used, those things are adjusted to prevent the engine from "lugging" below about 6,800 rpm at mid-track, which would grenade the engine.
It is a highly technical sport. Only the best of the best with years of experience get to be crew chief on a Top Fuel car. NASCAR crew chiefs need not apply for the job.
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