Talk:Top Fuel

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I'm pretty sure that parts of this article have been lifted from a widely distributed article which has been claimed to have factual errors. One of example is that of the "dieseling"; I remember someone saying that this only happens occasionally, but the article gives the impression that this is normal.

Can anyone with more expertise please clarify this?

Contents

[edit] Picture

a much closer night time shot might be a better choice


moving photo of top alcohol dragster to Top Alcohol article. Cdh1984 06:53, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Clutch and Tires

These dragsters wouldn't be performing at this level without the innovations in slipper clutch design..... as well as tire innovation and manufacture

Please help The only fellow mentioned in this article is one who died. In a clutch section, Big Daddy Don Garlits should be mentioned as the innovator who tried manually slipping a manual clutch--before this, the cars smoked the tires for nearly the entire distance!

[edit] Grammar

I took care of some of this today....


The section titled "The Top Fuel Engine" has quite a few grammar errors - many are subject/verb disagreement. I'd fix it but sometimes one has to know the implied meaning in order to achieve the correct explicit meaning when repairing grammatical errors. Can someone who is familiar with the subject and the English language fix this? human 19:10, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Too specific?

See my additions re the engine design......Yes, they are ALL the same, at present 500 cubic inch limit Other designs have been tried, but the cost of production for such a low volume deal is prohibitive....the sport is already at the limits of costs, as each run costs in the thousands of dollars. Also note that the fuel classes, funny car, alcohol dragster, and alcohol funny car use the same engine with variation for the application--the mechanicals remain fundamentally the same. Pro stock has a great deal of variety, but the 500 inch rule still applies



Much of the engine description appears to apply to a single engine, as opposed to top fuel engines in general. Is it really the case that every top fuel car uses the exact same engine? IE, no one's ever put the exhaust out four pipes?

Maury 12:37, 29 August 2006 (UTC)


[edit] The Fuel

Hello... Interesting article for those of us who know nothing about drag cars. One key point of this article must beto explain just why these cars use nitromethane rather than gasoline (or any other fuel)... and that point isn't really that clear from the section "The Fuel".

Now looking at the wikipedia article on nitromethane, it says:

"14.6 kg of air are required to burn one kg of gasoline, but only 1.7 kg of air for one kg of nitromethane. Since an engine’s cylinder can only contain a limited amount of air on each stroke, 8.7 times more nitromethane than gasoline can be burned in one stroke. However, nitromethane has a lower energy density. Gasoline provides about 42-44 MJ/kg, nitromethane provides only 11.3 MJ/kg. This analysis indicates that nitromethane generates about 2.3 times the power of gasoline when combined with a given amount of oxygen."

That seems much clearer. I'm not sure if that agrees what it says in this Top Fuel article. "Nitromethane has a stoichiometric air fuel ratio of about 1.7:1 and its energy content is about 11.2 MJ/kg. This suggest a very high specific energy at stoichiometric, about 6.6 compared to about 2.9 for gasoline. " is a pretty opaque explanation unless you have a degree in chemistry. Any chance someone who understands (not me!) could explain it better please? The stuff up above about less oxygen being needed by nitromethane, so fuel can be burned more quickly, is much easier to understand. Thanks! Chrisw404 15:03, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Which is faster?

Top fuel or funny cars? I'm not sure where the answer should be put..this article or the other one.--Hooperbloob 01:28, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

While both cars have the same amount of power, Top Fuel cars are lighter which allows them to accelerate faster and produce lower ET's. However, Funny Cars are more aerodynamic giving them a higher top speed. I suppose it matters how you define "faster".Mustang6172 (talk) 05:46, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Capitalization and hyphenation

Is it Top Fuel dragster, Top-Fuel dragster, or top fuel dragster? They're all used in this article. 23 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Ignition and supercharge

Fine page ! I'm one of those who didn't know much about dragsters before to read this page . So, I'm not sure to have caught up the aim of the following procedure : "Directly after launch the timing is typically decreased by about 25 degrees for a short time as this gives the tires time to reach their correct shape."
I can't figure out what can happen if this is not done: should this burn the tires, should make the thing uncontrollable, or... what if not, please ? I can just suppose that the goal is to temporarily reduce the power, right ? So what speed is supposed to be attained at this point when the tires are correctly shaped, and how long is the timing let that few degrees advanced ?

Also, what do they measure the exhaust temperature for ? Is it to regulate something ?
About the air surpercharger, I bet that only a few people know what General Motors scavenging-air blowers do look like. At least I don't, so I can't see why it seems to fit particularly well the design of top fuel engines.
--82.243.41.112 23:48, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Torque equation

could the equation used to reckon the torque be furnished? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.178.134.34 (talk) 00:34, 23 April 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Rewrite/split articles?

There is a lot of good information in this article. I think we could make "Top Fuel" more concise and more clear. I also think we could create "Top Fuel Engines" as a separate article with whatever interesting but more esoteric data we can actually source. Any thoughts? Gfloner 11:45, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Speed of sound

would these cars be able to break the speed of sound given enough distance?76.27.107.181 03:36, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

You might want to ask at the science reference desk, as I'm not sure how watched this talk page is. Someguy1221 03:41, 2 September 2007 (UTC)
They have only about a tenth the power of the only land vehicle to have done so, the ThrustSSC.--Father Goose (talk) 06:04, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Nitro percentage

Stating a maximum of 85% is not entirely correct, at present NHRA rules dictate 85%, but in europe the maximum is 90%, and NHRA are going to go back to 90% soon.

79.73.154.251 15:53, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Speed data

Are there are data sets available that measures the position/speed/acceleration vs. time? (Of course, any one of them can be used to derive the other two.) If a typical run burns 103 L of fuel then that's 117 kg of fuel (assuming 100% nitromethane) which is not insignificant which means acceleration is not constant (weight loss, among other things). Cburnett (talk) 01:23, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

That acceleration is not constant is guaranteed. Air resistance and traction surely vary enormously over the course of the quarter mile, and gearshifts probably introduce a noticeable sawtooth into the acceleration profile as well. It would be interesting to see a graph presenting the data you mention. I'm sure the teams collect it on every single run. But getting one's hands on such data... that's another matter.--Father Goose (talk) 06:29, 12 February 2008 (UTC)