The NHRA Nitro Experience
#1
07-12-2011, 12:55 PM
The NHRA Nitro Experience
Like most of us here, I am primarily a road racing fan, although I do attend the occasional oval race. Drag racing is a sport I am mostly indifferent about. The exception to this would be NHRA’s nitro classes. Sunday my wife and I attended the NHRA event at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Illinois. As a NAPA store owner, we had passes to the Don Shumacher Racing hospitality tent, including the NAPA-sponsored Funny Car driven by Ron Capps.
We have enjoyed this event the last few years. I strongly encourage anyone who is an automobile enthusiast of any kind to attend an NHRA pro event at least once in their life, because nitro fueled drag cars are like nothing else on earth. There are plenty of places online to read some of the mind-blowing statistics of these cars; This thread here on Teamspeed is a good one. This writeup is not going to be a rehash of such, but rather I will attempt to explain just what this experience is like, for those who have not yet had the chance to experience it for themselves.
During an NHRA National event, there are numerous amateur and two gasoline powered pro classes (Pro Stock and Pro Stock Bike), but it’s the pro nitro cars that everyone really wants to see. Nitro drag racing occupies an area of motorsport so far out on the fringe that you can barely see Formula 1 from there. Virtually nothing anyone learns in this sport will translate into the vehicles you or I will ever drive. Nitro is short for nitromethane (not to be confused with nitrous oxide), and it’s an angry, nasty fuel that is used in both the Top Fuel and Funny Car professional classes in the NHRA. The engines of both classes are the same; the differences are that Top Fuel dragsters have 300 inch wheelbases with the engine behind the driver, while Funny Cars have much shorter wheelbases with an enclosed chassis. Oh, and Funny Cars have the engine in front of the driver. (You’d have to be nuts. There are women driving these things. Bigger stones than I’ve got.) Any description I write here about one applies equally to the other.
Current mathematical estimates put the power output of today’s nitro engines somewhere in the 8000 horsepower range. Nobody really knows for sure. It’s not due to a lack of a suitable dyno, but rather the fact that a nitro engine cannot run at full power for longer than about five seconds before it starts to consume itself. Many races end with even the winners’ engines failing. It doesn’t really matter though, because a full rebuild is required after each run. During the elimination rounds this must be done in 45 minutes.
The typical NHRA ticket also allows you full pit access, where you can perhaps get a driver autograph (NHRA drivers are among the most accessible in motorsport), or watch these rebuilds take place. Our hospitality tent allowed us the additional privilege of lounging right alongside Ron Capps’ Funny Car. Before each run nitro engines are broken in by starting them and letting them run for a few minutes. The engines will not fire on the nitro fuel, so they require a squirt of gasoline to light up. For about two seconds after ignition, you are listening to what sounds like a very healthy hot rod engine. Then the nitro pumps are turned on, and the engine takes on an altogether different character. The tone sounds like it is coming from an engine of about 50 liters, or the bowels of hell itself. If you’re standing close, you think to yourself, is this even safe? By the way, it didn’t just get windy, that’s the exhaust that’s making the team’s canopy flap around like that. After about 10 seconds, you realize that a yellow haze is enveloping the area. That’s the exhaust fumes, and if you happen to be downwind, you will likely experience “nitro burn”, as the fumes attack your eyes, nose and throat. It’s funny to watch the crowd clear out as these fumes implore people to back away. Well, it’s funny unless it’s happening to you.
(sorry this video is cut short, but I began to suffer from Nitro Burn of the eyes)
YouTube - ‪Tony Pedregon Funny Car startup NHRA Joliet 2011‬‏
If the engine is being broke in after a rebuild following a run, some chief mechanics will set the clutch plates by giving a quick throttle blip. A nitro throttle blip is a mammoth, instantaneous BAP that will literally knock you back a foot or two. If you’ve made the mistake of not having your ears plugged, congratulations, you now get to go the rest of the day with an earache (this happened once to a friend of mine). This is why if you are anywhere near something that is running in an NHRA pit, you should just keep your ears plugged until it is shut off. However, there is a way to tell when a throttle blip is coming, because two or three mechanics will begin holding the car down so that it won’t jump off the jackstands. So you want to pay particular attention, so that you don’t end up like this guy:
(not my video)
YouTube - ‪Top Fuel Dragster (reving up, FUNNY)‬‏
The final eliminations begin with Top Fuel. The engines are fired on gasoline, and then that wonderful sound begins. The cars roll through the water and then do their burnouts. You will need to have your ears plugged for this, even though the cars are not yet making full power. As the cars idle backing up, you can unplug your ears, if you wish. But as the mechanics turn on the second magneto and second fuel pump, you will need to get ready, because the full force of the engines are now available. I have been to a lot of races over the years, and never really felt the need for earplugs, even at the U.S. Grand Prix (as I get older I have taken to using them for my annual foray into NASCAR). But if you’re thinking you don’t need earplugs for nitro cars, think again. You can hold your ears shut with your fingers if you find that to be more convenient. The cars stage, and then in an instant the lights flash green and the race begins.
It is hard to find words to describe the sound of a nitro drag race. Wikipedia tells us that nitro cars are as loud as 150db. That’s a hard number to wrap your head around, and microphones do a poor job of translating the sound adequately to television. The sound is quite simply huge; it takes over everything around it, I prefer to call it audio violence. It beats at your chest. Even if you are using foam type earplugs, the pulsations still travel into your inner ear, making the inside of your head tickle. Your vision goes slightly blurry, further confounding your brain as it tries to come to terms with an object that was just sitting stationary suddenly being gone at such a rapid pace. The beers you had sitting on the aluminum bleacher seat in front of you somehow acquire the ability to move around. Those seats are empty because the people who should be sitting there are instead standing against the fence at trackside, a practice that the NHRA allows against all common sense. Two to three deep the people stand, cheering their favorite driver, or just taking in the spectacle, it doesn’t matter. I saw an event on TV a few years ago where local seismologists had brought their equipment to the track. They determined that two Top Fuel cars leaving the line together produces a 2.0 on the Richter scale.
The NHRA runs the races in quick succession, but I swear they purposely allow a little extra time after that first race, just to let everyone come to terms with the enormity of what they just experienced. You can hear a collective gasp and fits of laughter roll through the crowd; especially precious is the reaction of the newbies. But you never truly get used to it.
For a real treat, station yourself near the finish line during one of the later rounds. Most drag races are run to a quarter mile. However, after the death of Scott Kalitta in 2008 the NHRA decreed that the nitro cars would run only to 1000 feet. This was an attempt to make the races marginally safer by allowing more shutdown room and reducing the terminal speeds, which at the time were regularly over 320 mph. It worked for a little while, but to the surprise of almost no one, speeds are back up over 300 mph again. Watching a race from the finish line is a little bit different; there is a split second delay from when you see the cars light up and hearing the actual sound. But as the cars approach the finish, the clutches are fully engaged and the engines are at full chat, in full self-destruct mode. It sounds not so mechanical as it does almost like enormous flatulence. You can feel the compression in your body. Needless to say you need to have your ears plugged, or you will hurt yourself. The cars flash by at an insane speed, somehow impossibly after having been stationary, so far away, only four seconds ago.
If you want to hear what all of this sounds like with unencumbered ears, I would say a safe distance would be several hundred yards, to a quarter mile away from the track. Two years ago, we arrived late and were still in the parking lot when the nitro eliminations began. It just blew my mind how a pair of 500 cubic inch engines could be making that kind of noise. Imagine the sound of time and space being torn in two, and you’ve pretty much got it. It’s very nearly terrifying.
Or it would be, if it wasn’t so awesome. Once again I encourage everyone to try this at least once. It might not be your thing, and you may not become a fan. But I promise you this: your perceptions of sound, speed and power will never again be the same.
Matt
YouTube - ‪NHRA 1st round 2011 Joliet‬‏
YouTube - ‪NHRA 2nd round 2011 Joliet‬‏
We have enjoyed this event the last few years. I strongly encourage anyone who is an automobile enthusiast of any kind to attend an NHRA pro event at least once in their life, because nitro fueled drag cars are like nothing else on earth. There are plenty of places online to read some of the mind-blowing statistics of these cars; This thread here on Teamspeed is a good one. This writeup is not going to be a rehash of such, but rather I will attempt to explain just what this experience is like, for those who have not yet had the chance to experience it for themselves.
During an NHRA National event, there are numerous amateur and two gasoline powered pro classes (Pro Stock and Pro Stock Bike), but it’s the pro nitro cars that everyone really wants to see. Nitro drag racing occupies an area of motorsport so far out on the fringe that you can barely see Formula 1 from there. Virtually nothing anyone learns in this sport will translate into the vehicles you or I will ever drive. Nitro is short for nitromethane (not to be confused with nitrous oxide), and it’s an angry, nasty fuel that is used in both the Top Fuel and Funny Car professional classes in the NHRA. The engines of both classes are the same; the differences are that Top Fuel dragsters have 300 inch wheelbases with the engine behind the driver, while Funny Cars have much shorter wheelbases with an enclosed chassis. Oh, and Funny Cars have the engine in front of the driver. (You’d have to be nuts. There are women driving these things. Bigger stones than I’ve got.) Any description I write here about one applies equally to the other.
Current mathematical estimates put the power output of today’s nitro engines somewhere in the 8000 horsepower range. Nobody really knows for sure. It’s not due to a lack of a suitable dyno, but rather the fact that a nitro engine cannot run at full power for longer than about five seconds before it starts to consume itself. Many races end with even the winners’ engines failing. It doesn’t really matter though, because a full rebuild is required after each run. During the elimination rounds this must be done in 45 minutes.
The typical NHRA ticket also allows you full pit access, where you can perhaps get a driver autograph (NHRA drivers are among the most accessible in motorsport), or watch these rebuilds take place. Our hospitality tent allowed us the additional privilege of lounging right alongside Ron Capps’ Funny Car. Before each run nitro engines are broken in by starting them and letting them run for a few minutes. The engines will not fire on the nitro fuel, so they require a squirt of gasoline to light up. For about two seconds after ignition, you are listening to what sounds like a very healthy hot rod engine. Then the nitro pumps are turned on, and the engine takes on an altogether different character. The tone sounds like it is coming from an engine of about 50 liters, or the bowels of hell itself. If you’re standing close, you think to yourself, is this even safe? By the way, it didn’t just get windy, that’s the exhaust that’s making the team’s canopy flap around like that. After about 10 seconds, you realize that a yellow haze is enveloping the area. That’s the exhaust fumes, and if you happen to be downwind, you will likely experience “nitro burn”, as the fumes attack your eyes, nose and throat. It’s funny to watch the crowd clear out as these fumes implore people to back away. Well, it’s funny unless it’s happening to you.
(sorry this video is cut short, but I began to suffer from Nitro Burn of the eyes)
YouTube - ‪Tony Pedregon Funny Car startup NHRA Joliet 2011‬‏
If the engine is being broke in after a rebuild following a run, some chief mechanics will set the clutch plates by giving a quick throttle blip. A nitro throttle blip is a mammoth, instantaneous BAP that will literally knock you back a foot or two. If you’ve made the mistake of not having your ears plugged, congratulations, you now get to go the rest of the day with an earache (this happened once to a friend of mine). This is why if you are anywhere near something that is running in an NHRA pit, you should just keep your ears plugged until it is shut off. However, there is a way to tell when a throttle blip is coming, because two or three mechanics will begin holding the car down so that it won’t jump off the jackstands. So you want to pay particular attention, so that you don’t end up like this guy:
(not my video)
YouTube - ‪Top Fuel Dragster (reving up, FUNNY)‬‏
The final eliminations begin with Top Fuel. The engines are fired on gasoline, and then that wonderful sound begins. The cars roll through the water and then do their burnouts. You will need to have your ears plugged for this, even though the cars are not yet making full power. As the cars idle backing up, you can unplug your ears, if you wish. But as the mechanics turn on the second magneto and second fuel pump, you will need to get ready, because the full force of the engines are now available. I have been to a lot of races over the years, and never really felt the need for earplugs, even at the U.S. Grand Prix (as I get older I have taken to using them for my annual foray into NASCAR). But if you’re thinking you don’t need earplugs for nitro cars, think again. You can hold your ears shut with your fingers if you find that to be more convenient. The cars stage, and then in an instant the lights flash green and the race begins.
It is hard to find words to describe the sound of a nitro drag race. Wikipedia tells us that nitro cars are as loud as 150db. That’s a hard number to wrap your head around, and microphones do a poor job of translating the sound adequately to television. The sound is quite simply huge; it takes over everything around it, I prefer to call it audio violence. It beats at your chest. Even if you are using foam type earplugs, the pulsations still travel into your inner ear, making the inside of your head tickle. Your vision goes slightly blurry, further confounding your brain as it tries to come to terms with an object that was just sitting stationary suddenly being gone at such a rapid pace. The beers you had sitting on the aluminum bleacher seat in front of you somehow acquire the ability to move around. Those seats are empty because the people who should be sitting there are instead standing against the fence at trackside, a practice that the NHRA allows against all common sense. Two to three deep the people stand, cheering their favorite driver, or just taking in the spectacle, it doesn’t matter. I saw an event on TV a few years ago where local seismologists had brought their equipment to the track. They determined that two Top Fuel cars leaving the line together produces a 2.0 on the Richter scale.
The NHRA runs the races in quick succession, but I swear they purposely allow a little extra time after that first race, just to let everyone come to terms with the enormity of what they just experienced. You can hear a collective gasp and fits of laughter roll through the crowd; especially precious is the reaction of the newbies. But you never truly get used to it.
For a real treat, station yourself near the finish line during one of the later rounds. Most drag races are run to a quarter mile. However, after the death of Scott Kalitta in 2008 the NHRA decreed that the nitro cars would run only to 1000 feet. This was an attempt to make the races marginally safer by allowing more shutdown room and reducing the terminal speeds, which at the time were regularly over 320 mph. It worked for a little while, but to the surprise of almost no one, speeds are back up over 300 mph again. Watching a race from the finish line is a little bit different; there is a split second delay from when you see the cars light up and hearing the actual sound. But as the cars approach the finish, the clutches are fully engaged and the engines are at full chat, in full self-destruct mode. It sounds not so mechanical as it does almost like enormous flatulence. You can feel the compression in your body. Needless to say you need to have your ears plugged, or you will hurt yourself. The cars flash by at an insane speed, somehow impossibly after having been stationary, so far away, only four seconds ago.
If you want to hear what all of this sounds like with unencumbered ears, I would say a safe distance would be several hundred yards, to a quarter mile away from the track. Two years ago, we arrived late and were still in the parking lot when the nitro eliminations began. It just blew my mind how a pair of 500 cubic inch engines could be making that kind of noise. Imagine the sound of time and space being torn in two, and you’ve pretty much got it. It’s very nearly terrifying.
Or it would be, if it wasn’t so awesome. Once again I encourage everyone to try this at least once. It might not be your thing, and you may not become a fan. But I promise you this: your perceptions of sound, speed and power will never again be the same.
Matt
YouTube - ‪NHRA 1st round 2011 Joliet‬‏
YouTube - ‪NHRA 2nd round 2011 Joliet‬‏
#4
07-13-2011, 03:34 PM
From a NHRA fan.
DEFINITION OF ACCELERATION
One top fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows of stock cars at the Daytona 500.
It takes just 15/100ths of a second for all 8,000+ horsepower of an NHRA Top Fuel dragster engine to reach the rear wheels.
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's supercharger.
With 3,000 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 of nitro methane, the flame front temperature measures 7,050 deg F.
Nitro methane 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 halfway, the engine is dieseling from compression, plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1,400 deg 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 9,500 rpm.
Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimate $1,000.00 per second.
The current top fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.428 seconds for the quarter mile (11/12/06, Tony Schumacher, at Pomona , CA ). The top speed record is 336.15 mph as measured over the last 66' of the run (05/25/05 Tony Schumacher, at Hebron , OH ).
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 pass 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 1,320 foot long race course.
...... and that my friend, is ACCELERATION!
DEFINITION OF ACCELERATION
One top fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows of stock cars at the Daytona 500.
It takes just 15/100ths of a second for all 8,000+ horsepower of an NHRA Top Fuel dragster engine to reach the rear wheels.
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's supercharger.
With 3,000 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 of nitro methane, the flame front temperature measures 7,050 deg F.
Nitro methane 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 halfway, the engine is dieseling from compression, plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1,400 deg 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 9,500 rpm.
Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimate $1,000.00 per second.
The current top fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.428 seconds for the quarter mile (11/12/06, Tony Schumacher, at Pomona , CA ). The top speed record is 336.15 mph as measured over the last 66' of the run (05/25/05 Tony Schumacher, at Hebron , OH ).
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 pass 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 1,320 foot long race course.
...... and that my friend, is ACCELERATION!
#6
07-13-2011, 04:24 PM
Use to go to Sears Point every year to watch them run back when they ran a real quarter mile. As the OP mentioned, everyone should experience the shock wave coming at you during a launch. It's unlike anything you will ever experience.
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