steelcomp

The HP comes from the ability to cram as much nitro into the chamber as possible. The cars (last I worked on one) run two huge fuel pumps (80gpm Watermans, I believe) and the fuel line from the tank to the pumps is a 2" dia. pipe. There were, at that time, 8 injector nozzles in the hat, 24 in the intake (3 per cyl) and two directly through the head into the intake port. That's 48 injector nozzles feeding nitro into that engine. At full throttle there's so much nitro in the chamber that right before the mixture fires, it's almost a solid.
Today's TF engine is pure billet. The block is machined from a solid billet of aluminum, and so are the heads. Intake valves are titanium, and ex valves are inconel. Once a TF engine lights, the only way to shut it off is to shut off the fuel, because the spark plugs are simply glowing, and will ignite the fuel without a spark.
Just for grins, think of this...in your fastest imaginable drop dead bad *** Roush "Stang or Lingenfelter Corvette, you could cross the starting line of a 1/4 mi. at 200mph, and from a dead stop, a TF dragster would beat you to the finish line.

Demon 340

awesome info steelcomp...did you work for an nhra/ihra team? or did you just know someone with a nitro car?

Clif Brohn

You see....Im a big NHRA/drag racing fan. And am a Bazemore/Force guy...but ive always wondered, how close are we gonna get to running the QM in no time at all? Am I going to live to see the day a 15,000hp TF car runs a 1.2second QM? Just food for thought. TF cars will reach 300+mph faster than 99% of automobiles will hit 60 with a pro driver....I'd like to be around to see the next level of drag racing.

Demon 340

there is a point at which it just isnt possible to go any faster...terminal velocity, and they are at the point right now where it is SUCH a fine balance between traction and no traction...i think that 4.42 is the current top fuel record? considering that is the BEST that they can do with the current power output and chassis design, i dont think that breaking the 4 second barrier is going to be possible without some sort of extreme engineering feat. i have no doubt that record top speeds, such as we see on the salt flats, will continue to increase, but from a stop, there is only so fast that a certain vehicle can get moving. and for a car to make a standing quarter mile pass in two seconds, you would be talking about a car moving at the speed of sound (761mph), and i dont think that is possible, just due to the coeficient of drag added by the ground surface.

oh, and go scelzi and capps

snakeman4life

One think to consider is the fact that the NHRA has cut the percentage of nitro they can run.They used to run 98% nitro but they cut that to running 90% and then [I believe] 85% max,so they could actually be running quicker these days if they could still run 98%.And BTW there has been a 3 second run at almost 400mph,it was done by a rocket powered dragster back in the 70's I believe,but the rocket cars got banned because they were so dangerous.But like jet cars I dont really consider them legit,but the jets do put on a good show.

steelcomp

NHRA Pro Stock, TA and TF.

steelcomp

Don't ever tell all that to someone like Alan Johnson. They took away nitro to slow them down...they went faster. They added gear to slow them down...they went faster. They changed wing...faster. Faster, faster. A guy like AJ, who's had the worst of it when it comes to getting slapped with "limitations and restrictions" back when they were running TA, will always be an innovator. They will continue to go faster, and quicker. The incriments will be smaller, but none the less, they will always improve. When they hit the HP wall, they find a way to make more. When they hit the traction wall, they will find a way to get more. There was a man a long time ago who was a very educated engineer that said no one would, could, ever exceed 200 mph, that it was physically impossible. I remember when Prudhomme ran the first 6-oh, and then went into the 5's in his funny car. Pro Stocks were never going to see 200mph or 6's. Now days you have 283 powered full sized stock class sedans running 9's.
Progress will always be progress. That's justthe way of the world.

Clif Brohn

But thats just the thing...people were saying that back when slingshots were the fastest cars around. Somebody will make something. I'm not saying its gonna be anytime soon, but one day a new compound or casting method is gonna be discovered, and bam......three second quarter miles. I dont think we'll ever see sub 3 second cars(how the hell is the driver gonna control a car going 700+ mph like ROTM mentioned?) but 3s are very possible. I'd say inevitable. We are stuck with the technology we have now, who knows what will be out in another decade. Its crazy thinking about it.

steelcomp

You have no idea what technology is being used these days. Today's racers aren't stuckusing technology, thry're developing technology, and at a pretty alarming rate.

P Zero

I heard that the TF cars run so much fuel into the cylinders that theyre on the verge of hydrolock. I noticed that when they fry a cylinder it sprays a mist out of the header pipe.

And TF cars are loud but theyre still not nearly as loud as the jet cars. Several years ago I saw the Lava machine and some other car run at a dragstrip. Those things were SOOO loud, I had to plug my ears until they shut em off at teh end of the strip. And I beleive that both of those ran in the 3.xx's
-P.