Fast Truck

[GyroRon]

I am NOT a ford man, but thought this was impressive at any rate.

http://www.olypen.com/bulldog/movies.html/F350Run.wmv

[GyroRon]

That is bracket racing. They don't start at the same time in bracket racing.

I have some friends who bracket race 4 wheel ATVs and even riding lawnmowers against Mustangs and other fast cars. Your racing a time not the other car.

[Russell]

That was awsome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Do you guys know what it takes to get a car no less a truck into the 11's
a lot of torque!!!!!! That man spent a lot of money on that vehicle.
Russ

[Russell]

OK here is some light reading.


This seemed interesting
A lesson in acceleration:
------------------------------------
First, some useful info:

* One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500.

* Under full throttle, a Top Fuel dragster engine consumes 1½ 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 426 Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to drive the

dragster's supercharger.

* With 3000 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 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitro methane the flame front temperature measures 7050 degrees F.

* Nitromethane 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. After 1/2 way, the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust valves at

1400 degrees 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 at 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 red-line is actually quite high at 9500 rpm.

* The Bottom Line; Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated $1,000.00 per second. The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.441 seconds for the quarter mile (10/05/03, Tony Schumacher). The top speed record is 333.00 mph (533 km/h) as measured over the last 66' of the run (09/28/03 Doug Kalitta).

Putting all of this into perspective:

You are riding the average $250,000 Honda MotoGP bike. 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 RC211V hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line and past the dragster at an honest 200 mph (293 ft/sec). The 'tree' goes green for both of you at that moment. The dragster launches and starts after you.

You keep your wrist cranked 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 1320 foot long race course.

That, folks, is acceleration.

[GyroRon]

Good post Russ. Interesting to read.

[Al_Hammer]

Ok, taking it in a different direction: that post got me thinking about humans experiencing high g's.

It is possible to survive incredible g's - as long as they only last a fraction of a second.

Indy car racing has been using crash data recorders for the past few years that record the g-forces during the race, including any accident that may occur. Some surprisingly high impacts loads were found.
Here's the results for the 1995 season:

Worst Front Impact: 62 g's "Driver suffered minor pains and scrapes"
Worst Rear Impact: 82 g's "Driver continued to compete that weekend"
Worst Side Impact: 120 g's !!! "Driver unconscious for brief time"

60 g's translates to decelerating from 60 MPH to 0 MPH in 2 feet, which you could get from the crush zone in a head-on collision.

[scottessex]

Just imagine how fast you could pull a trailer!! ;D

[Screw]

Yeah Russ,

That was interesting reading.

...But if that same dragster was a gyro traveling at the same 300mph, what would coning angle of his blades be? ;D

More importantly, would Ron sell it? :o

John-