DID YOU KNOW?
Did you know That the air fuel ratio for maximum power is about 13
to 1 for a gasoline engine, the air fuel ratio for maximum power is about 7 to 1 for an alcohol engine and the air fuel ratio for a nitro engine is about 1 to 1!
Did you know That stoichiometric ratios will be higher because more
fuel is necessary to get maximum power due to the fact that the mixture in a real engine is never homogemious.
Did you know That Nitro methane is CH3 NO2 , basically a combination of Methane and Nitrous Oxide. Now you know why they call it the loud pedal on a Nitro fueled car.
SOMETHING ELSE TO PONDER......
Did you know That back in the mid 60's cars had 2 ply bias tires, manual drum brakes on all 4 corners, seat belts (lap) were an option, dashes were made of good solid American steel and no one knew the meaning of handling, steering wheels were as big as ship's wheels and it took
about 4 spins to do a corner...performance was how fast does it go...
Did you know That today we have all season radial tires, computer controlled anti-lock 4 wheel power disc brake systems, seatbelts with shoulder harnesses, front and side air-bags, computer tuned suspensions that'll do .8 g's on a skid pad, side impact barriers, crumple zones....and on and on.....
Did you know That according to my grandfather, er father ....(ok it was me but I was real young)... back in the 60's the speed limit out on the interstate was 70mph and I think maybe even 75 in some places...today in a lot of places on the interstates up here in the northeast its only 55 mph.
HOW FAST IS A TOP FUELER>>>>>REALLY.
Did you know That a top fueler goes 0 to 60 ft in a little more than .8 seconds and is going over 100
MPH when it gets there!
Did you know That a top fueler on a typical run is going over 250 MPH by 1/2 track.
Did you know That the headers on a fueler produce about 800 pounds of down force. Watch the launch next time you see one. The car moves down as it begins to move and the header flames come up. This helps them get traction before the aerodynamics kick in, at say 60 ft.
Did you know That a really fast street car... ok an old muscle car .....suppose you backed it up a 1/2 mile
or so from the starting line of a drag strip and got a running start on the track and got it up to say 120 mph.....the front end will become very light and the car will start dancing around....white knuckles time....anyway at 120 MPH you cover a mile in 30 seconds, a 1/2 mile in 15 seconds and 1/4 mile in 7.5 seconds. The top fueler driver can let you go to almost 1/2 track before he leaves the starting line and will still come thundering by you at the finish line at more than 200 MPH faster than you are traveling. Which is almost 3 times faster than you are going.
Can you say FFFFAAAASSSSSTTTTTT!!!!!
..... OK lets try try this ..... get in a REALLY REALLY fast street car... do the same thing at lets say 180 MPH (know anybody with a 180 mph STREET CAR?)...... NOPE...Me neither but is doesn't matter you still lose.. mile = 20 sec ... 1/2 mile = 10 secs.... 1/4 mile = 5 seconds.
Like I said FFFFAAAASSSSSTTTTTT!!!!!
REALLY REALLY FFFFAAAASSSSSTTTTTT!!!!!
EVER BEEN ON A DRAG STRIP>>>>>>>>WITHOUT A CAR
Did you know That the track surface at the drag strip is sticky. At the Keystone Nationals about 2 years ago after the race they let the fans out on the track to mingle with the racers and to check out the track. I've been watching from the stands for years and taken a few passes with my street car .... walking down the groove on the concrete launch pad, the track was so sticky it nearly pulled the bottom of my sneakers off. We walked all the way to the
sand pit at the end. The transition from concrete to asphalt was nothing short of amazing..... like walking from super fly paper to walking on sticky notes. It suddenly becomes very clear why the nitro cars smoke the tires at the transition..... A tip of the hat to all the crews chiefs and teams that get a car to go the whole 1/4 smoke free.
Did you know That gasoline once sold for less than a dollar a gallon.
Did you know That at least 80% of the facts above are true!!!
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