What is drag racing? The fastest and most powerful motorsport.
A drag race takes place over a quarter of a mile on a straight
track known as a drag strip. A race between two cars, fastest
to the finish line wins, obviously the car with the most power
wins. To overcome this, cars are split into different classes
of engine type and fuel. Classes range from street cars up to
purpose built outrageous and exciting machines.
Safety in drag racing is of a very high standard, cars are under
strict scrutiny before the race and at the start of the race by
start line officials.
European drag racing is governed by the Federation International
Automobile (F.I.A.) who also govern formula 1 and rallying. At
this point in time circuits in Great Britain, Sweden, Norway and
Finland host F.I.A. European Championship rounds.
CHASSIS
The chassis is built from chrome-moly tubular steel. 300 inches
is the maximum wheel base allowed. The long wheel base allows
the dragster to stay in a straight line. As the dragster leaves
the
line, the chassis flexes absorbing energy which helps to gain
traction. The driver is protected by a part of the chassis commonly
known
as the 'roll cage', with safety in mind this part of the chassis
is extremely strong.
THE ENGINE
V8 Hemi all aluminium between 400-500 cubic inches producing
between 7,000-8,000 bhp. To help produce this power, sitting
on top of
the engine is a 14-71 supercharger. The cylinder heads have two
valves and two spark plugs per cylinder. The fuel pump pushes
about 65 gal/min of fuel into the engine. The oil system is a
wet system
oil pan being made of aluminium or titanium. Top fuel engines
need to use two magnetos to generate the ignition. Magnetos produce
a much longer and more powerful spark.
FUEL
This is a mixture of nitromethane and methanol, nitromethane
because of it's chemical properties requires less oxygen to
burn than petrol,
resulting in more power. Unburnt fuel leaves the engine and
the heat of the exhaust pipes ignites the nitromethane. At
night
this looks quite spectacular. The pressure thrown out from
the exhaust
creates enough down force that it helps with traction.
CLUTCH
The power from the engine is transferred to the wheels throught
the clutch system, no gears, just forward and reverse. A
four plate clutch system is used, clutch plates are changed
after
every run.
The temperature in the clutch can reach as much as 1,000
degrees.
BRAKES
The braking system is two fold, none on the front disc. On
the rear, the disc brakes are operated by a handle in
the cockpit. The main braking system is the parachutes, a
driver
can have
as much as + 5 G-force at the start line to - 5 G-force
when the parachutes
are opened.
WHEELS
The front wheels are about 3 inches wide, rear wheels
36 inches in diameter. To help with traction, the driver
does
a burnout
before the start of the run. This puts heat into the
tyres and sticky
rubber on the track which helps create maximum traction.
WINGS
A top fuel dragster has two wings at the front and
one large wing at the back. The purpose of these
wings is
to create
as much down
force as possible.
BODY
Body panels are magnesium and carbon fibre attached
to the chasis with quick release fastening.
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