Drag Racing!!!!!

[dubby99]

I was at Western Sydney International Dragway yesterday and i was a guest of the Santo's Cranes drag racing team to secure a sponsor for my karting.However i watched some of the top fuelers and door slammers and i am now hooked on drag racing.

So i have a couple of question for you racers


Does anyone hear like drag racing from the racers point of veiw?

Is there any skill involved driving an 8 second machine or faster down the 1/4 mile?

And is it worth spending thousands of $$$$$ learning how to drive such a fast machine at a drag racing school?

[blue nose]

Why dress up as a woman to race a car...but spending thousands for an 8 second rush no thanks.

[Camaroz]

Drag Racing is complete WOFTAM.

It is very popular as most spectators do not have an attention span of more than 10 sec's.

Show me a usable automotive development from Drag Racing and I'll reconsider!

[dubby99]

I respect that these are your veiws on drag racing but i was looking for a poster that has competed in drag racing.

My love for circuit racing will never fade but i just love diversity in racing and thats why i want to explore other disciplines of racing.

Now i was NOT talking about getting a CRX and bolting a rice burner to it lowering it and stick neon's in the wheel arches to make it run 13's, i am talking about those nitro burning ground shaking ear ringing jaw shaking V8s.

[dtype38]

I had a go at Santa Pod drag strip in the UK in my track race car with a few others from our race series. It was just for a laugh as my V12 was only actually running on 11, but what the heck eh?

Anyway, I can see how it could get addictive. After only two or three runs I was improving my reaction times and terminal speeds and starting to think about NOX and stuff. Its a real rush. If I was more into that sort of thing I might have taken it further... but I was already hooked on track racing and, as they say, you can't do everything

At the end of the day its up to you to decide what rings your bell If you need someone else to tell you its worth doing then it probably isn't.

[BlueBlood]

I have never competed any higher than street car level, but love the sport. Lots of skill involved at higher levels, just watch some of the footage from the states.
6000 plus horsepower, 4.5 seconds quarters at 500 k plus, G forces 6 times that of the spaces shuttle, the noise, the smell, the ground shaking power, whats not to love?

[dubby99]

Thanks for the reply's dtype38 and BlueBlood sometimes i just want to talk about drag racing from the drivers seat but there's now where in 10 tenths to talk about it.

And i agree with you,lots of skill involved in driving a 6000hp nitro car down the 1/4 mile it's just that some people don't understand.

But i think you need a lot more balls than brains to do something like that.

Could you ever imagine Shumi driving a top fuel car?

[1200Datto27]

He does!!! (Tony that is )

[dubby99]

Originally posted by 1200Datto27
He does!!! (Tony that is )

You had me there for a sec until you said Tony

[Eric Falce]

I was at the Pod when Sammie Miller did one of his 0 to 300 MPH ,in 3 (Three) seconds in Vanishing point,old man Bob Phelps who built Santa Pod blew his top because it sucked the windows out of the hospitality bus,plus anyone who witnesed 'Hell Bender','Vampire' or 'Scopian',all jet cars , go off from the line will never forget it,'Scorpian' pushing the the tower back 12 inches,let alone a funny car accelerating to 300 and going slightly offline as Micket Thompson did one year,mindblowing.
Eric.

[Andrew Kitson]

That time by Sammy Miller in 1984 in the 'vanishing point' jet car is still I believe the fastest ever 'recorded' drag run anywhere in the world.
It does not count though as an official track record, as it was a demo - not part of the actual racing competition.
3.52 secs I think it was over the line at the end of the standing 1/4 mile at 358 mph.
The European top fuel record stands at around 4.8 secs. The fastest speed 313.

[BlueBlood]

Current NHRA records,speeds in MPH.
TF 4.441 10/04/03 Anthony Schumacher - Long Grove, IL
'03 McKinney R.E.D Reading, PA
TF 333.41 05/22/04 Brandon Bernstein - Lake Forest, CA
'03 R.E.D. McKinney Joliet, IL
FC 4.665 333.58 10/03/04 John Force - Yorba Linda, CA
'04 Ford Joliet, IL
PS 6.661 207.75 10/02/04 Greg Anderson - Concord, NC
'04 Pontiac Joliet, IL
PSB 7.016 06/19/04 Andrew Hines - Brownsburg, IN
'04 Harley V-rod Englishtown, NJ
PSB 194.10 05/20/01 Matt Hines - Trinidad, CO
'86 Suzuki GSXR 1100 Englishtown, NJ
TAD 5.227 02/09/03 Anthony Bartone - Manhasset, NY
'01 McKinney AFD Pomona, CA
TAD 280.54 10/04/03 Michael Gunderson - Middleburg, FL
'03 Hadman R.E.D. Reading, PA
TAFC 5.520 10/03/04 Jay Payne - Claremont, CA
'04 Chevrolet Joliet, IL
TAFC 262.33 05/18/03 Frank Manzo - Morganville, NJ
'03 Pont Firebird Englishtown, NJ

[Kelvin]

Sammy Miller, I was there too!!

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/kelvin....ammyMiller.jpg

[dubby99]

That a cool picture Kelvin

Is there any jet cars that still do 3.52

Sends a shiver down my spine

[Eric Falce]

It was'nt a jet car,it was a rocket car,ran on 90% or there abouts pure hydrogen peroxide. One of his tricks was to say he was ready,the car gave a small puff moved forward two feet and stop,everyone would laugh,then he'd gun it,no one laughed.
The engine ,as far as I'v been told was the same type as the one on the Lunar landing craft,the ones they used to stabilize the craft! Good fun,going to fit one in my Escort next year,watch out Rod.

[Al Weyman]

Talking of rocket powered vehicles, take a look at this, now this does require balls. http://www.swissrocketman.com/films/VeloDonald.wmv

[dubby99]

Originally posted by ecktic
It was'nt a jet car,it was a rocket car,ran on 90% or there abouts pure hydrogen peroxide. One of his tricks was to say he was ready,the car gave a small puff moved forward two feet and stop,everyone would laugh,then he'd gun it,no one laughed.
The engine ,as far as I'v been told was the same type as the one on the Lunar landing craft,the ones they used to stabilize the craft! Good fun,going to fit one in my Escort next year,watch out Rod.

Good luck ecktic hope it goes all to plan

Just don't blow yourself up

I am also going to fit a rocket to my street luge it's going to be fun

Maybe some day we will meet up and race

[Eric Falce]

Hope so,got my escort to Brands after its mallory bender,took 3.5 secs off my best GP circuit time,very pleased with it,my body man is also pleased that its still in one piece.

[Andrew Kitson]

A short(!) movie of Sammy Miller doing 300mph+ at Santa Pod.
http://www.ukdrn.co.uk/mc/4.35@317.mov
Thanks to ukdrn.co.uk
Great site - lots of old Santa Pod images.

[keith h]

Try the gator nationals in florida usa,makes berneys f 1 curcus look like a bunch of girl guides in soap boxes!!!!

[BlueBlood]

* 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 dragster engine consumes 1-1/2 gallons of nitromethane 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.
* 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 (stoichiometry: methodology and technology by which
quantities of reactants and products in chemical reactions are determined)
1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitromethane 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 Â*
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 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 redline is actually quite high at 9500rpm.
* 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 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.

That folks, is acceleration

[dtype38]

[Eric Falce]

I was in Italy where Roy Phelps of Santa Pod fame was starting a dragster engine for the first time after a rebuild for a show they where putting on.He had'nt rebuilt the engine and was very wary,he spun the engine over maybe three turns,shut everything down,removed all the plugs ,blew out each cylinder with compressed air.He explained that on each firing stroke about an eggcupfull of nitro mixture is injected into each cylinder,if it did'nt fire on the first turn by the second or third turn you had a bomb being ignited by twin magnetos,I stepped back about 6 paces.

[keith h]

wot ho .as i said before bernie can go boil his f1 head!

[Al Weyman]

Interesting post Blueblood, a good read.