I was an engineering student at General Motors Institute and sponsored by the Fisher Body Division in Hamilton, Ohio. The school is no longer owned and operated by GM, but still maintains ties. It is now called Kettering University, located in Flint, MI. Graduated in 1959. I spent 34 years with the company and retired in 1988. Coming up on 23 years of retirement.
60's Drag Racing
- Thread starter 73ss454
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I was an engineering student at General Motors Institute and sponsored by the Fisher Body Division in Hamilton, Ohio. The school is no longer owned and operated by GM, but still maintains ties. It is now called Kettering University, located in Flint, MI. Graduated in 1959. I spent 34 years with the company and retired in 1988. Coming up on 23 years of retirement.
bruce1
Full time employment: Posting here.
Jungle Pam
. Many many memories here. Watched Shirley Muldowney do licensing runs at Cayuga Ontario in the 70's Many other big names there at that time also including Tommy Ivo, Connie Kalitta, and Don Garlits
. Many many memories here. Watched Shirley Muldowney do licensing runs at Cayuga Ontario in the 70's Many other big names there at that time also including Tommy Ivo, Connie Kalitta, and Don Garlits
bruce1
Full time employment: Posting here.
Have to agree with you there. You can probably still get a lot of the old souvenir stuff if you dig around a little. I just remembered the first time I saw a top fuel that did not require a push start. I was amazed. I don't remember who it was though.
OP
OP
73ss454
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
It was actually pretty cool when they push started them. In NY at NY National Speedway on LI they used to push them down the return road and they'd fire up right in front of the crowd. You could almost reach out and touch the cars.
packrat44
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Your posts brought a smile to my face.
I still have one car that I built for the strip back in that era. In 1962 I bought '36 Ford 5 window coupe. Built an early big block Olds bored and stroked to 447in, 10 percent setback (gasser), 6-71, B&M hydro. It has been dormant for many decades. Thinking seriously of refurbishing it for street duty.
bruce1
Full time employment: Posting here.
I saw him run at Grand Bend and Cayuga (now Toronto Motorsports Park) the year before last. Looks like he is in his fifties.
A little bit of information I found a few years ago on top fuel cars will help explain why those of us who have seen these monsters run will never forget it. You have to see it live.
* One NHRA Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than all the cars in the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500.
* Under full throttle, a Top Fuel dragster engine consumes 1½ gallons of nitro methane per second; a fullyloaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate with 25% less energy being produced.
* A stock Dodge 426 Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to drive the dragster's 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 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitro methane the flame front temperature measures 7050 degrees 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 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 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 at 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 9500 rpm.
* 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)
These records have edged up a little but NHRA is currently running a 1000 foot race instead of1320 due to some unfortunate accidents.
Bruce
bruce1
Full time employment: Posting here.
Put another way.
Imagine this: You are riding the average $250,000 Honda MotoGP bike. 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 RC211V hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line and past the dragster at an honest 200 mph (293 ft/sec). The 'tree'goes green for both of you at that moment. The dragster launches and starts after you. You keep your wrist cranked 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.
Ouch
Imagine this: You are riding the average $250,000 Honda MotoGP bike. 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 RC211V hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line and past the dragster at an honest 200 mph (293 ft/sec). The 'tree'goes green for both of you at that moment. The dragster launches and starts after you. You keep your wrist cranked 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.
Ouch
OP
OP
73ss454
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Packrat, on your last post take a look about 1:56 seconds in and watch the guy power shifting. This is Dave Strickler and he's running a Grumpy Jenkins prepared car here. There is nothing that is cooler than that. I can remember running my big block chevelles back in the day and that was me!
Today everyone is running automatics. Watching Pinks, it looks like these guys are getting on the highway. No power shifting, no fun.
Today everyone is running automatics. Watching Pinks, it looks like these guys are getting on the highway. No power shifting, no fun.
