Top Fuel Dragster

[Ed Pawlowski]

I've seen them run but this gives some of the work and design behind them. They also burn fuel at a rate of $100 a second.

[rbowman]

I have wondered if it's the British accent or if every presenter is trying to sound like Attenborough.

When I was in school the Resnick & Halliday physics text suggested there were limits on linear acceleration imposed as the coefficient of friction approached 1.0. The TA drove a Corvette and spent his weekends at the Glens Falls Dragway. He delighted in pointing out the AA fuelies had found a loophole around that little problem. Damn hotrodders wouldn't follow the science.

I've never been to a drag strip. I grew up on short dirt track racing and drag racing was some kind of California thing like surf boards, whatever the hell they were. These were outlaw tracks. The closest NASCAR track was in PA. The quarter mile setup didn't work on long tracks.

[Clare Snyder]

1/4 mile and the only thing that limits how much fuel they can burn - and theretore how much power they can consume is the volume of the combustionchamber. Another half a cc of Nitro based fuel and the engine would hydro-loch and bend the rods and smash the pistons.