How a Top Fuel Dragster Works

a 2000 pound dragster 17 gallons of rocket fuel 8,000 horsepower a top fuel dragster accelerates faster than any other ground vehicle on earth it generates 5 G's and hits 300 miles per hour in the time it takes a conventional car to go from zero to 30 how do these amazing machines convert all that power into blistering speed great side by side car we're going to show you on this episode of Popular Mechanics how they do that hi my name is Dave Grubnic and I Drive the Optima batteries top fuel dragster for Caleta motorsports and I'm gonna give you a detailed tour around this bad boy so let's take a look and see what makes it tick historic Raceway Park in old bridge Township New Jersey was the host for this year's NHRA s super Nationals the most exciting part of NHRA professional drag racing is that these race cars is the noise you feel them when they go down the racetrack you really feel them these things shape the ground it's like a little mini earthquake in the teen Caleta pits the crew is prepping the dragster for its initial qualifying run I think drag racing all my life and I've been an assistant crew chief on this car for about six years now mr. actors made from chromoly tubing and a lot of carbon fiber parts billet aluminum makes about 8,000 horsepower it's 500 cubic inches and it can accelerate from 0 to 120 miles an hour in less than one second what got me hooked on this sport and these race cars was a race to the Australia when I was 13 years old from that moment on I got goose bumps and I knew that's exactly what I wanted to do there you go David Grubnic 382 0 [Music] now let's analyze the run second-by-second in only half a second the cars have blasted a 74 miles per hour traveling only little over 21 feet now at one second they're already up to 113 miles per hour and 75 feet from the start the ignition advance is from 56 degrees to 27 degrees a strategy to keep the tires gripping the track at a second and a half we're at 162 miles per hour and 125 feet by this point the clutches throw out bearing has moved through three of five of its stages increasing the pressure on the discs two seconds in we're travelling 231 feet and are now approaching 213 miles per hour the fuel flow ramps to 95 gallons per minute at two and a half seconds we've traveled 420 feet and are at 248 miles per hour some of the clutch plates begin welding together pulling the engine to 6,800 its lowest rpm of the run now only three seconds into the race our car has traveled 650 feet and is now going 275 miles per hour thanks to 5,000 pounds of aero downforce the tires have incredible traction but wind resistance slows acceleration to about four G's three and a half seconds in we're at 783 feet and traveling at 293 miles per hour many of the spark plugs have now burned away so the engine is diesel Eng and some cylinders simply don't fire now at 1,000 feet the winner crosses the finish line going 315 miles per hour the chute is then deployed slowing the vehicle down rapidly without causing excess wear on the carbon-fiber brakes let's watch that again at normal speed now let's see how some of the main systems in the dragster work together to create this awesome power [Music] the centum is a v8 it's based off a Chrysler Hemi now the engine block is made from the chunk of billet aluminum pick to get in the square block of aluminum putting it inside a CNC machine and start boring it out and drilling it out same applies to the cylinder head to saw on the head again based off the Chrysler Hemi it's a 2 valve hemispherical combustion chamber now to ignite that whole mixture we use Magneto's the nitromethane we put 1.2 1.3 gallons a second through this engine we want to ensure that we fire that off so we use two spark plugs two Magneto's these Magneto's here generate approximately 44 amps of primary current if you want to do you could do a little bit of our clothing with these things so they're very very stout [Music] so what's a supercharger well your everyday passenger car breathes air just like we do and it breathes there at what we call that mysteric pressure so as the internal components of the engine four Pistons go up and down as the piston goes down you take the Armel open and atmospheric pressure will push the air fuel mixture into the cylinder and what we do is we force that into the engine under pressure and that's what this supercharger does that's what Mikey's working on right now getting it ready for race day the supercharger takes a gulp of air and forces that into the intake manifold and we have a reserve enough of the reserve that will actually build approximately 50 psi of manifold pressure so think of 50 pounds of pressure sitting in behind that intake valve and every time it opens it's forcing that much air into the cylinder and that's what this little bad boy does and when it does that and we open up these butterflies believe me it's a lot of horsepower [Music] it's time for the first qualifying race and team Kalina is making their final preparations the dragster is towed to the staging lane for its first run driving this racecar is it's all about focus points there's so much intensity that happens to drive this thing you really don't pay too much attention to anything else then other than what you're doing at that specific time there's no point in worrying about keeping it in the groove until you've done the burnout correctly and back the car up there is no margin for error in these things driving one of these cars is being like an NFL picked up and there's like two seconds left in the game then you need to kick it to win the game if we make a mistake we're done solid performer once we've completed with the run the adrenaline shifts from the driver to the crew with a total opposite of nasca or any other Motorsports where they spend most of their time on the track we're on the track versus your period of time and in the pit for a long time the car comes back here to the pit area gets put up on jack stands and you'll basically see five guys taking the engine apart taking the transmission out taking the clutch in and out of the car it's all part of the refurbish process that happens every run we have spares for everything you figure there's eight runs that you can maximize a race there's eight engines and eight sets of heads in this trailer at all times during the run there's some parts that are consumed Pistons connecting rods rings spark plugs everything gets refurbished after every time the car runs what we use is nitromethane now gasoline itself actually carries more energy in it per gallon now the reason we can make so much more power is because we've burned so much of it underneath here there's an aluminum fuel tank which is approximately this long and it fits inside the frame rails holds approximately 17 gallons it comes back to a fuel line down here which is two and a half inches in diameter we have a fuel pump here and the fuel pump on these cars is rated at 100 gallons per minute this engine will consume over 1.3 gallons a second as it's going down the quarter mile a lot of feel and in turn a lot of power [Music] [Applause] the clutch itself is important because it's the buffer between the engine and the tires on the racetrack the biggest difference is between this and a passenger car in a passenger car you have a transmission and the clutch only operates one disk in these cars there's six discs and multiple levers to provide what the transmission would do in your passenger car there is no transmission in these cars it would be like putting your car and whatever the highest gear is you have and letting off of the clutch let's look at these components this is the clutch disc this is a solid disc it's centered on we separate those clutches with this steel floater this floater will run on top of that and we'll just stack them up stacking up and stacking up then our input shaft will go and it'll just be splined through there and then that transmits all the power through to the rear end so it's a direct drive system no gear shifting so how do we clamp this all packaged together we use this what this is it's a centrifugal clutch these levers will all come out and what they do then is they'll push onto a doughnut through the backside of this lever and they'll crank this whole package together these levers are all at individual Heights it allows these 11 then to apply pressure to the pressure plate and in turn lock the clutch up very intricate part very critical part of what accelerates these cars there's something that the crew chiefs really have to master [Music] so how do we accelerate a 2,000 pound car to five g's well we do it with these tires these tires are absolutely amazing the sidewall here is no more than approximately a hundred and fifty thousand spec that's not very why the reason it is that way is it's a wrinkle wall slick when this tire sits up there on the start line and I step on the gas this tire will stick itself down to the racetrack what that's doing is essentially increasing the footprint so statically it's this big but once I step on the gas it rolls itself out that's how we can accelerate it so fast once it goes through that part it has to what we call get up on the tire it transitions the centrifugal force of rotation will make this tight growth they'll go from being this white at the start line to being about this wide at the finish line and that's like shifting gears [Applause] of all these variables how do we come up with a setup for this car but one of the key factors is the racetrack temperature so if the racetrack temperature is above 110 120 degrees it becomes what we call very slippery so we can't get aggressive with the car the racetrack temperature is below 90 degrees then it becomes very good and we can get aggressive the ultimate final setup is not put in this racecar and pull where up up in the staging Lane I mean Caleta our Turner and owner he will go up and watch the cars in front of us and he will have preset scenarios in ignition Maps clutch management that sort of stuff the ultimate set up and does not go in this race car until it's probably two or three runs away from sometimes the next pair down the racetrack it's the last minutes up and we have to that's how critical some of these conditions are [Music] in 110 months season the Caleta crew will race over 180 times covering 34 miles of racetrack in 11 minutes this is the ultimate test of any machinery systems and crew that helps support it [Music] we've just seen how a combination of integrated systems expert crew and precision driving work together to catapult these dragsters beyond 300 miles per hour in less than four seconds but those that haven't been I encourage you to come to an event and feel and experience the raw power that comes out of these cars I've been in my whole life I'm an addict there's really only one favorite varmint and that's obviously winning and that's how it's done [Music]

Channel: Car and Driver

Views: 5,871,809

Keywords: Popular Mechanics, Car and Driver, NHRA, Team Kalitta, David Grubnic, Optima Batteries, Top Fuel, Drag Racing, Racing, Drag Car, Drag, Car, Autos, Auto Racing, National Hot Rod Association, quarter-mile

Id: -VF0JwxQqcA

Length: 13min 49sec (829 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 10 2012

Reddit Comments

[u/rocksfly]

A lot of that energy is converted to sound waves. If you're near the starting line of a NHRA Top Fuel race, your internal organs will remember the experience.

[u/249ba36000029bbe9749]

Here's the top fuel copypasta:

-One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500. They have over half again as much horsepower in one cylinder as a Dodge Viper has in all ten. No one has ever successfully run one long enough on a dyno to get a horsepower reading. Current estimates are right around 6,000 horsepower.

-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 supercharger. The fuel pump alone requires more horsepower to turn than the average street car produces.

-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.

-The 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitro methane produces a flame front temperature measures 7050 degrees F.

-Nitro methane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, disassociated from atmospheric water vapour 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 the run, the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1400 degrees F. The engine can only be shut down by running the car out of fuel. There is no way to cut off the fuel; the engine stops only when it blows or the tank runs dry.

-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. To put this in perspective; a top fuel dragster, parked next to a Super Hornet on the steam catapult on the deck of an aircraft carrier, would be in the water and sinking before the Super Hornet was halfway down the deck.

-Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have completed reading this sentence.

-Top Fuel Engines only turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light!

-Including the burnout, the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load. They only survive about 80% of the time.

-Redline at 9500 rpm.

-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 engine is entirely rebuilt every run, or every 900 revolutions. New pistons and rings, new rods, new rod bearings. Sometimes a new crank. The crew does this in about two hours between rounds.

-The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.441 seconds for the quarter mile. The top speed record is 333.00 mph (533 km/h) as measured over the last 66' of the run.

-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 past 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 1320 foot long race course.

https://www.reddit.com/r/copypasta/comments/is0zux/top_fuel_dragsters/

Although it is implied by the G's being pulled, one of my favorite facts is that a top fuel dragster would reach 1/4 mile faster being driven than it would hit the ground being dropped 1/4 mile up in the air.

[u/khassius]

The clutch itself becomes unusable as all gears get welded together from the force and speed involved on the process. On regular petrol, these engines manage to output something like 4000 horsepower. Thanks to the nitromethane, it becomes something like 10-11000 horsepower. And nitromethane works as coolant as well. No need for a radiator or anything as this wouldn't work as good as nitro does the job.

[u/Weekly_Bug_4847]

At I believe the NHRA museum, they have a simulation of fuel being injected at race pace, and it’s a ludicrous amount of fluid.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xGTbQuhhluY

[u/jkmumbles]

This stuff really amazes me. It’s like formula 1 condensed into a 1 lap race, but the lap is basically how fast can your vehicle can go before it explodes. Amazing really.

[u/monkeyhoward]

And they are loud as fuck, holy shit. It's like a redneck space launch

[u/RollingWithMyDemons]

That's like 8 speed!

[u/tallnskinnymikey]

Romain Grosjean crashed at Bahrain last year in F1 at almost 60gs

And he survived, after being in an inferno for 27 seconds.

🤯🤯🤯

[u/MackersP]

As someone who has little to no interest in vehicles, holy fuck I found that fascinating