Accelleration

[TheIrishman]

gotta love the engineering that goes into something like that.
An indy car idles at 10k rpm. IDLES.
Insane.

Actually, the "Indycar Series" cars are rev limited to 10,500rpm. A 500rpm powerband would be of little use. Formula1 limits rpm to 18k, but a 10k idle is still extremely high.

[308Mike]

gotta love the engineering that goes into something like that.
An indy car idles at 10k rpm. IDLES.
Insane.

Actually, the "Indycar Series" cars are rev limited to 10,500rpm. A 500rpm powerband would be of little use. Formula1 limits rpm to 18k, but a 10k idle is still extremely high.

I can't imagine what it's like to shut down an engine at 10,000 RPMs. If that's the starting speed from IDLE, I wonder where its working output is generated????

[mekender]

Specialized to the point of uselessness...

Actually not so.

A very large number of technologies developed in top fuel, have spread to other forms of racing; and even into non-racing applications.

Top fuel is a great extreme development environment. It has greatly accelerated the development of materials in engines, in head geometry, in clutch and transmission technology etc...

The improvements in gaskets, bolts, and studs alone are huge.

I would imagine that similar improvements in things like restraint systems, roll cages, suspensions, etc have come from the various racing sports... Also I have to imagine that the monster truck world has led to real world developments.

[HTRN]

but a 10k idle is still extremely high.

I think the average F1 motor idles around 4k. Indycar is probably lower.

[JustinR]

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 ).

Ho, hum. How quaint. I go over 500 MPH 3-4 days a week...

...with my feet up, reading a book, and drinking a Mountain Dew.

[MarkD]

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 ).

Ho, hum. How quaint. I go over 500 MPH 3-4 days a week...

...with my feet up, reading a book, and drinking a Mountain Dew.

\

Yes... and if you had to do it below 50 feet altitude, with less than 50 feet clearance on either side of your wings, you'd be shitting yourself so hard you levitated.

You, sir, have a way with words!

[JustinR]

Yes... and if you had to do it below 50 feet altitude, with less than 50 feet clearance on either side of your wings, you'd be shitting yourself so hard you levitated.

Absolutely right. I much prefer going fast where there are fewer things to hit in a shirt sleeve environment.

I have a lot of respect for people who do any kind of racing, and the G forces involved in those dragsters would make for one hell of a ride. When I get around to it, aerobatic training and performance routines will be the closest I'll ever get.

[HTRN]

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 ).

Ho, hum. How quaint. I go over 500 MPH 3-4 days a week...

...with my feet up, reading a book, and drinking a Mountain Dew.

\

Yes... and if you had to do it below 50 feet altitude, with less than 50 feet clearance on either side of your wings, you'd be shitting yourself so hard you levitated.

Not to mention hitting that 300mph from a standing start, in less than two city blocks, while pulling 6gs at launch..

What's even scarier than the dragsters, is the Fuel Funny cars(AA/FC), because you at least have good visibility in the dragster...

I like fast cars as much as the next guy, but after one former associate trying to talk me into a outlaw fuel altered, I came to my senses - these things are scary and unforgiving of mistakes. The guys who race them don't have brass balls, no, they have Triple Chrome plated Tool Steel balls the size of pumpkins.

[308Mike]

I used to live next door to a guy who drag raced his rail. It wasn't a top fuel, and I don't know all the other classes, all I know is when he fired that thing up in his garage, it sounded like the thing was coming right through our wall. It shook our ENTIRE house, and it wasn't even in OUR garage, so I can only imagine what it must have felt like in HIS house!!!

I never saw him race, but he had quite a few trophies in his house, and I helped him push his dragster out of the garage and into their trailer more than a few times, but never with the engine running.

The sound of that thing running next door and shaking our entire (cheaply constructed) house is something I'll NEVER forget.

[TheIrishman]

At least in ice racing, you're not as fast, and you don't have trees coming at you at 90mph; but the surface you're racing on...

They have ice races on Lake George in NY(years when it freezes thick enough). Buddy(gone a few years now) built a buggy out of scrap with an old airplane engine salvaged from Teterboro that was a sight to behold. The most fun though was watching the guy with the Astrovan on blizzak's beat all the little ricers in Subaru's and such because they didn't know how to drive. Of course it didn't hurt that he had a GMC Syclone engine in it.