Went to the Drag Races at Bandimere Speedway last night

OutHouse

Lifer
Jun 5, 2000
36,413
616
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My 8 year old daughter won tickets through a school contest called "Race to Read" so I took her last night. First time for either of us at a real drag race. The theme was "Night of Fire and Thunder" It was pretty cool. The Jet cars about scared her to death, but turned out to be her favorite cars, i guess because of fire they shoot out the back before they launch. The Funny and Top Fuel cars rocked! Man i gotta get me one of those. hehehe. :D

I was suprised how long it takes for the strip maint crews to clean up a oil spill. Never seen that done when ABC shows the nationals. I thought it was live but i guess not.
 

toph99

Diamond Member
Aug 25, 2000
5,505
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sweet :)
i've never been to a drag strip, sadly. although i LOVE top fuel cars, they kick as$ :)

Got these off of a site don't know if they are all true or not but they were still interesting to read



Some interesting Top Fuel dragster facts:

* One dragster's 500-inch Hemi makes more horsepower then the first 8 rows at Daytona
* Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1 1/2 gallons of nitro per second, the same rate of fuel consumption as a fully loaded 747 but with 4 times the energy volume.
* The supercharger takes more power to drive then a stock hemi makes.
* Even with nearly 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into nearly-solid form before ignition. Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock.
* Dual magnetos apply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder.
* At stoichiometric (exact) 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture (for nitro), the flame front of nitromethane 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.
* 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 of it's fuel
flow.
* if spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in those cylinders and then explodes with a force that can blow cylinder heads off the block in pieces or blow the block in half.
* Dragsters twist the crank (torsionally) so far (20 degrees in the big end of the track) that sometimes cam lobes are ground offset from front to rear to re-phase the valve timing somewhere closer to synchronization with the pistons.
* To exceed 300mph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must accelerate at an average of over 4G's. But in reaching 200 mph well before 1/2 track, launch acceleration is closer to 8G's.
* If all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs $1000.00 per second.
* Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have read this sentence.

 

Supermercado

Diamond Member
Jan 18, 2002
5,893
0
76
I went to the Holley Spring Nationals a few weeks ago at Rockingham Dragway. I think that was called the "Night of Fire." Unfortunately, the weather was less than pleasant, so I think they ended up having the funny/top fuel/motorcycles the next day (which we couldn't go to because of other stuff). But we did get to see the jet-powered cars and the semi truck. Those things were absolutely insane. I could literally feel my jeans moving due to the sound waves of those things. Incredible.
 

OutHouse

Lifer
Jun 5, 2000
36,413
616
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toph99: Nice info, i didnt know any of that..



SuperCommando: I could literally feel my jeans moving due to the sound waves of those things << I think that is what freaked my daughter out, and watching two cars zip by at 297 mph!!!
 

Ornery

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
20,022
17
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I posted this in Deeko's 0-60 topic:
  • Top Fuel Dragsters or Fuel Funny Cars, with power levels in excess of 6000 hp do 0-60 mph in about 0.5 seconds and spend less than 5 second on the quarter-mile distance, reaching speeds well over 300 mph... :Q
Seems trivial compared to toph99's list! Good stuff! Guess it would be kind of hard to make one of those puppies streetable. :D

Hey, Citrix. Never got a reply to my PM after this outburst. Are you still pissed? :confused:
 

aimn

Banned
Feb 14, 2001
683
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The first drag race I went to years ago, they were preparing to start up a funny car. Unknowing why everyone was backing away, we stepped closer. As soon as the nitro started burning, we couldnt breath any more and it was like being maced in the eyes! I was screaming as loud as I could in my buddies ear, he couldnt hear a word I said. The ground shakes so hard, it is hard to walk near one of those cars. My dream was to drive a funny car some day, not any more!! Those guys are nuts! They say its like being in two accidents each run. They say it is like someone hitting you from behind at 60 mph and when you pop the shuts, like hitting a brick wall at 80mph. Those guys are winded when they get out of a car after a sub 5 second run. They are sore and have headaches! Sure is awesome to watch!
 

Pacfanweb

Lifer
Jan 2, 2000
13,149
57
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And so many people say all we drag racers do is drive in a straight line.
rolleye.gif


 
Aug 16, 2001
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Awesome info!

I went to a dragrace in Phoenix earlier this year. Top Fuel / Funny cars are the best.

The pit pass was well worth it. They rebuild the engines after every run and then they fire'em up in the pits. People close ran away to be safe but there was one guy who put up with the noise and unburned Nitro. His eyes was all red and wet. He was in pain but he yelled 'Ooh, damn I love this! Gotta go back real soon'

LOL @ him.
 

notfred

Lifer
Feb 12, 2001
38,241
4
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I went to the dragstrip last night too, only I was racing (at much slower speeds, though). It's fun :)