Color me impressed, connecting rod content.

Anyone who has never been to a major NHRA fuel meet really should make the effort to go once. You will be impressed, I know I was.

novaderrik wrote:

Curmudgeon wrote: That's some serious force being transferred through the rod. I know this next part is blasphemy, but I just don't see the point of dragsters any more. Sure it's cool to see exhaust flames, I love the ground shaking etc but spending that kind of money to drive for less than 5 seconds? Nope, just not seeing it.

drag racers feel the same way about dodging cones in a fwd economy car in a parking lot on a sunday morning..

Yeah, after hanging out with the drag guys for many years at my dad's speed shop I can agree that's a mild assessment of how they think. I look at it like this: bracket racing is cheap, it's the autocross of drag racing. Typically most street cars can probably run in the 15-16 second area, it's not really all that hard to lop a good bit off of that (bolt ons, tires, etc) and get them down to the twelve second or so range.

Once the 12 second milepost is passed, the money necessary to make the car faster rises exponentially. Now we might have a 10 second car; at this point the cost of the engine, chassis mods, etc has gotten WAY up there (and yes I know there are people like Andy Nelson, but he's not human! Luv ya, Andy! ). Figure an engine for a solid 10 second car will set you back probably $15k- IF you are lucky. Chassis mods and tires, figure another $3k. Car itself, well that varies but we will say maybe $3k for, say, an older Fox body Mustang. So we are at roughly $21k. Over a year's racing, the car might make, say, 50 drag runs (SWAG) at 10 seconds each. That's 500 seconds. Times two for comparison (see below) is 1000 seconds or 16.66 minutes. $21,000 divided by 16.66 minutes... that's about $1260.00/minute.

I built my current car for about $7k all in, but I'm a cheapskate. I have put, so far, probably 15 hours on it and have reached a top speed in the 140 MPH range (Road Atlanta). Add ~ $2500 for a trailer and tools etc, then I've spent probably another $3k on entries, gas, etc. So over the last 3 years, $12,500.00 all in. $12,500 divided by 15 hours... that's about $13.88/minute.

So on a $ per minute basis, it's cost me WAY less than that 10 second drag car. With (to me) MUCH greater thrills and adrenaline. Also there's still much more potential in my car with fairly minor expense, always assuming I don't do anything stupid (that's not guaranteed, unfortunately).

I know it ain't for everyone. But this is how it works for me.

Orgasms only last for a few seconds. Doesn't stop people from trying.

Yours only last a few seconds?

Just bumping this because I'm going to the NHRA Nationals in Phoenix this weekend. Finally get to see and hear these things up close!

In reply to Lancer007:

DO NOT FORGET EARPLUGS.

I like the fact that we don't know how much power a Fuel motor makes. We simply don't have a dyno strong enough. There's something beautiful and organic about that.

Kenny_McCormic wrote: In reply to Lancer007: DO NOT FORGET EARPLUGS.

Yep, if you've heard a NA V8 F1 car and thought those were loud...then you'll learn the true meaning of LOUD.

Appleseed wrote: I like the fact that we don't know how much power a Fuel motor makes. We simply don't have a dyno strong enough. There's something beautiful and organic about that.

They have strain gages placed on board in various locations. The standing and understood rumor is that they don't broadcast the number as not to alarm insurance companies and whatnot. The estimate that I have heard is over 10Khp. That's very amazing.

I worked at a dragstrip for three seasons, nothing like being on the starting line with top fuel cars.

it's not a cliche‛ that they shake the ground … sit at the starting line, with really, REALLY good ear protection, and you'll feel you entire body being shaken

In reply to wbjones:

You don't have to sit at the starting line either. Stand at the end of the track and you can feel the ground shake when they launch.

tuna55 wrote:

Appleseed wrote: I like the fact that we don't know how much power a Fuel motor makes. We simply don't have a dyno strong enough. There's something beautiful and organic about that.

They have strain gages placed on board in various locations. The standing and understood rumor is that they don't broadcast the number as not to alarm insurance companies and whatnot. The estimate that I have heard is over 10Khp. That's very amazing.

With a known weight, known speed and known time couldn't you calculate power?

Edit: Or at least calculate the power that is being used to propel the car down the track?

yamaha wrote: and 7 1/8th inches from center to center. Also has perhaps the finest machined end cap I've ever seen(hardly noticeable)

With a stroke over 7 inches, I was going to guess the rod is from some type of MG or Triumph. But then you said it was finely machined, which rules out the British. ... Unless it's from a bizarro world where the Germans won, but for some reason neglected to murder the English engineers.

Toyman01 wrote:

tuna55 wrote:

Appleseed wrote: I like the fact that we don't know how much power a Fuel motor makes. We simply don't have a dyno strong enough. There's something beautiful and organic about that.

They have strain gages placed on board in various locations. The standing and understood rumor is that they don't broadcast the number as not to alarm insurance companies and whatnot. The estimate that I have heard is over 10Khp. That's very amazing.

With a known weight, known speed and known time couldn't you calculate power? Edit: Or at least calculate the power that is being used to propel the car down the track?

Since the clutch is slipping more than half of the track it would be tough to accurately see how much power it's making, so as you said in the latter note, it would be a calculation on how much is being used.

For anyone fairly local to SE Michigan you can take tours of the Kalitta shops in Ypsilanti. Very informative.We got to talk to one of the crew chiefs and one of the engine builders. The engine guy showed us one that had had a "major component disassembly issue". Rod was a pretzel and my arm would readily pass through the block. Hundreds and hundreds of pistons,rods, and clutch plates everywhere.Each one has a serial number and is cross referenced to each run it has made in a car. One factoid the crew chief told us.....the fuel pressure at the fuel pump inlet goes up to 60 psi at launch just from the acceleration. It's a 2" gravity fed line from the tank.

Back in the 1970's I used to spend a good bit of time at Blaney Drag Strip down here. When the Top Fuel or Funny cars would come to the line I'd make it a point to be standing behind the line because the noise and earth shaking was just incredible, something every car guy should experience at least once.

OBTW: the pipes swoop up for a reason. At full power the thrust from the exhaust helps keep the car on the ground. A misfire can cause the car to lose control!

Curmudgeon wrote: Back in the 1970's I used to spend a good bit of time at Blaney Drag Strip down here. When the Top Fuel or Funny cars would come to the line I'd make it a point to be standing behind the line because the noise and earth shaking was just incredible, something every car guy should experience at least once. OBTW: the pipes swoop up for a reason. At full power the thrust from the exhaust helps keep the car on the ground. A misfire can cause the car to lose control!

i've only ever been to one NHRA national event- Brainerd in 2000- but i thought that the best place to watch the Fuel cars was at the finish line.. there was just something about hearing and feeling the cars launch 1/4 mile away, then the few seconds of building anticipation before they flew past at over 300mph...

In reply to novaderrik:

I liked to watch closer to the 1/8th mile mark, a lot of them seemed to explode around then.

Curmudgeon wrote: OBTW: the pipes swoop up for a reason. At full power the thrust from the exhaust helps keep the car on the ground.

800lbs of downforce.

OK, I've see the dragster factoids that makes the rounds, and having fuel pressure go to 60psi down a 2"pipe just from launch gee is impressive, but 800 lb downforce from exhaust? First I'm all like "BuuuuulllllE36M3" but then I recall as to how they are lighting off a near-hydrolocked cylinder full o'nitro at every revolution. That right there is a whole lot of mass being accellerated upwards at... lessee, carry the 1, add the columns... really friggin fast. Just.. wow.

Just got home from the event.

Holy berkeleying E36 M3.

That was awesome.

One of those other car mags (SCC)back in the heyday of IHRA did a comparison of the "low tech" top fuel cars vs the more "technologically advance" top tier import cars. The claim was something like 8000 hp out of the carb'd mountain motor. They also claimed NHRA had tested fuel injection on those same motors and picked up almost 2k hp in doing so. So in order to keep it from becoming even more of an arms/technology race they decided to ban fuel injection. IIRC

In my opinion, one of the coolest things I can say about the big drag racing events is the access you have to the teams/drivers. I have a shredded blower belt from the last year I went to the Gator Nats. Was at the end of the track shooting photos of the runs and got a step by step series of photos of the belt shredding and the resulting fireball.(I love that rapid fire setting for taking action shots! I was shooting the launch with a zoom lens, when I realized something went wrong I just held the button down) Asked the cleanup crew if I could have it and they tossed it to me. Went through the pits and had every driver I could find that night sign it. It hangs on the wall in the next room. Even got to talk to John Force for about 10 min while Ashley was staging back when she ran Super Comp. Had him sign my old man's brick Nokia cell phone I had borrowed for the day while he was there. Even got thanked and a handshake for the series of photos I dropped off the next day of both his girls runs as they launched. Got to see if I can dig up the disks with the photos of that weekend. I've got one killer silhouette shot of a double decker hauler lifting a car to load in the top rack.

I always like to sit at the starting line since that's where the cars spend the most time at. However, one time I was down at the finish line when a dragster blew up. I'd say I was about 100' away from the cars as they went by at 300 mph. The explosion was big enough that I felt the heat. Whoa! Jet cars are worth checking out, especially at night. They don't shake the ground like the fuel cars do, but the 'afterburner pops' and 'flame show' are a nice touch, and they are every bit as loud as a fuel car.