Modern Nitro Facts

One Top Fuel dragster��s 500-inch Hemi makes more power than the first 8 rows at the NASCAR Daytona 500

Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1 ��gallons of nitro per second, the same rate of fuel consumption as a fully loaded 747 but with 4 times the energy volume

Even with nearly 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into nearly a solid form before ignition. The cylinders run on the verge of a hydraulic lock.

Dual magnetos apply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder.

A stoichiometric (exact) 7.1:1 air/fuel mixture (for nitro), the flame front measures 7050 degrees F.

Nitro methane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the headers at night is raw burning hydrogen, disassociated from the atmospheric water vapor by the searing exhaust gasses

Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After ��way, the engine is dieseling from compression-plus the glow of the exhausts valves at 1400 degrees F. The engine can only be shut down by cutting off its fuel flow.

If spark momentarily fails early in the run, the unburned nitro builds up in those cylinders and then explodes with the force that can blow the cylinder heads off the block in pieces or blow the block in half.

Dragsters twist the crank (toritonally) so far (20 degrees at the big end of the track) that sometimes the cam lobes are ground offset from the front to rear to re-phase the valve timing somewhat closer to synchronization with the pistons.

To exceed 300 mph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must accelerate at an average of over 4G��s. But in reaching 200 mph well before ��track, launch acceleration is closer to 8G��s

On the tracks with short shut-down area, many drivers shut off before the finish line, or even dual parachutes will not stop the car.

If all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs about $ 1000.00 per second.

Dragsters reach over 300 mph before you have read this sentence.

Ever stop to think about how many revolutions the engine will turn from starting line to finish line?

Just say the engine turns 6000rpm (they don't turn then very high rpm to begin with) and a run is like 5.75 seconds long. That would mean for the top fuel car's engine from starting line to finish line has only made around 575 revolutions of the crankshaft.

JOHN