OT - Drag Racing - Unimaginable Acceleration

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Back in high school we used to go to the drags often. Even made a few runs with the '59 Chevy before the safety regulations made it too expensive for teenagers.

Top dragsters were hitting 130, maybe a bit more. Fast forward 35 years. I turned on ESPN and they are showing the Nationals. The announcers says the last run was something close to 300 mph. I thought he must have made an error or I was not listening becuase you just can hit those speeds in 1/4 mile. Wow, was I impressed when the showed the run.

[Wood Butcher]

John gotcha. A crapsman table saw would beat a dragster if BOTH fell off a cliff and the tablesaw had a 20' head start. Don't take a math geek to see this.

Art

[Kai Seymour]

You omitted this part before the last sentence:) Now that gentleman, is acceleration. Never mind how quick your car is away from a stoplight, forget about the time you spun your tires in second gear.

As I recall we are paraphrasing; the book was about legendary cars and the above scenario was about a W125 Mercedes Benz Grand Prix car of the

1930's.

While the power generated is impressive, what I find astounding is that it can be transferred to the pavement with what, a little over a square feet of contact area.

[Wes Stewart]

On Wed, 25 Feb 2004 05:46:19 GMT, Kai Seymour wrote: [snip]

|While the power generated is impressive, what I find astounding is that |it can be transferred to the pavement with what, a little over a square |feet of contact area.

What you must consider is that the "pavement" is as highly engineered as the cars.

Traction improving compounds are applied so that the tires "hook up" much better than in the days when I was drag racing (late 50s-early

60s)

See:

[Mark and Kim Smith]

J.C. Agajanian presents.................. (said in my best anouncer voice!)

[Mark and Kim Smith]

Yeah, but you forgot to factor in the twitch!

[Bob G.]

===================================== This is not the kind of discussion I thought I would read this morning in the woodworking newsgroup....

But as a 60 + yo serious woodworker and a Car Nut I had to chip in... John Lingenfelter unfortunately died receintly ...and the Corvette community is still mourning his passing... Only good thing is that he was behind the wheel with his right foot planted to the floor ... doing what he enjoyed....

Bob Griffiths

64 72 & 99 Ragtops 76 79 & 95 Coupes 68 SS 396 Chevelle for the track

[jo4hn]

Hey! Gotta have a level playing field here. Even if it is vertically level. ? [WTF did he say??] jo4hn

[TeamCasa]

Ascot Raceway - many youthful nights spent there!

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[Tom]

Top dragsters were hitting 130, maybe a bit more. Fast forward 35 years.

Tom M.

[Bud & Gom]

Cool!!!

[Duane]

And if your gonna watch, you have to stand at 3 locations, starting line, mid track and near the lights, totally different sound and expierence at each location. Oh, and if you get the chance, be in the pits when the fulers are tuning up!

Duane

[Mark and Kim Smith]

His boy Chris was my neighbor a bunch of years back. He owned one of the faster cars in town. The other fast car was owned by the son a german fella who owned a VW repair shop in the city. Nice fast Porche. Mueller Motors(?) maybe? Same town Phil Spector is having a little trouble in.

[Oregon]

Lingenfelter was involved in an accident in Oct-02, underwent surgery in Nov-02, entered into a coma, and died in Dec-03.

[Mark]

You forgot: The longer the engines burn the greater the potential acceleration.

?

Because the shuttle gets lighter.

[Mark]

.....

(Drumming fingers on table, biting lip ...)

Your assuming acceleration constant.

Your premise is faulty.

This is as nice as I can be.

[Mark]

And

Not to mention not backing off the throttle then getting back into it.

There's a Top Fuel Harley contender/ National rated rider up the road a ways. I was told he was part of the way through a run, noticed his hand had slipped on the throttle, so he cranked it back to full. Such are the mistakes made in the heat of battle.

He hydro locked the engine, blew the head. It caught him in the chest. Statistically he should have died.

You know what they say about statistics.

He did spend quite a long time in the hospital getting his guts put back in place.