Do You Like Drag Racing?

I do.

Always have.  Probably always will.  I was fortunate to grow up smack in the middle of America and smack in the middle of drag racing heaven.  So much so that I chose to invest most all my winnings from a successful career as a pool hustler into semi-professional career as a drag racer.  

Note that I never got really famous for either, except in my own mind.  Well, maybe the pool part...

Anyway, I raced competitively in the American Hot Rod Assn. during the 60's.  I held several national records in Super Stock.  But that was back during the days when you drove to the track, raced, and then drove on back home.

Now?  It's a whole different deal.  A cubic money deal.  Please allow me to cite some examples.

Starting at the top, AA/FD, or Fuel Dragster, is like a hole into which you throw money.  Bushel baskets of it.  

Each dragster has a wheelbase 300 inches long.  They are made of carbon fiber and titanium and forged aluminum and fiberglass.  Sort of like a 25 foot long tube made of "unobtainium" with huge tires attached.  They must weigh at least 2,350 pounds, including the driver.  Their huge rear "slicks" (tires designed for maximum traction) are 17.5" wide and 32" tall!  They have airfoil "spoilers" both front and rear that provide unbelievable amounts of down force.  At full song the car will produce more than 12,000 pounds of downforce!  It would literally run on the ceiling if you could get it up there!

Each dragster uses a 500 cubic inch forged aluminum "hemi" V-8 engine.  These engines are so high-tech they can now be "printed" using enormous 3-D printers.  And it only takes about five x 24 hour days to print one.  

Each cylinder is the size of a tomato can.  Each is custom-designed and built to withstand the enormous stresses and pressures these cars undergo.  When loaded with 85% nitromethane (oxygen-rich fuel), and pressurized by a huge GMC supercharger at 60 lbs./boost (5 x normal atmosphere), and fueled by a pump that could empty your pool in less than five minutes, and a fuel line the size of a garden hose, these engines can produce more than 11,000 horsepower at 8,800 rpm, and 8,000 pounds of torque!

NOTE:  No one knows exactly how much power they make because there's no dynamometer large enough to measure them.

These cars will accelerate from zero to 100 miles per hour in 0.8 seconds!  And they will run 285 m.p.h. in 1/8th mile and more than 338 m.p.h. in less than 3.70 seconds in 1,000 feet! Their drivers experience a positive 6 g's during acceleration, and up to 7 g's when their parachutes pop out to slow them down.  Retinas have become detached in so doing.  That, my friends, is fast!

These engines routinely burn 12 - 13 gallons of nitromethane during a single run.  Their tanks hold 17 gallons.  They burn 11 gallons per minute, so you get the reason for urgency in staging, and in seeing that "green" light.  In other words, you've got about a minute and a half - only - to start it, stage it and run it down the track.   

Once a run is over the car's engine is completely rebuilt.  The engine is fully disassembled by a crew of 7 or 8.  The crankshaft and pistons come out, the heads and supercharger comes off, and then inspected, then new parts installed, and finally its all screwed back together.  This can happen in as little as 20 minutes.  The all-time record is 9.82 minutes!

Lemme' say that again:  Imagine disassembling a red hot motor, down to the spark plugs, and then putting it all back together and starting it in less than 20 minutes.  Yeah.  I thought you'd be impressed...

What does all this cost?  As they say, if you have to ask, you definitely can't afford it.  Here's a sampling for your motoring pleasure:

  -  Engines (bare forged aluminum block):  

    $58,000 each.
  
  -  Superchargers:  

    $17,000 each.

  -  42 gallon barrel Nitromethane:  

     $1,195.

  -  Cost for Nitromethane per 1/4 mile run:  

     $400.

  -  Cost for each rear slick:  

     $700 (good for 4 runs only).

  -  Carbon fiber car body:  

    $72,000.

  -  Cost in parts for each engine rebuilt:  

    $5,000.

  -  Estimated cost in parts and fuel for each 1/4 mile       run:

    $10,000.

  -  Cost of a race-ready car:  

    $500,000 up.  Often waaaay up.

  -  Cost to campaign an AA/TF dragster, 26 races:  

    $2 - $10 Million a Year. 

In addition to the big boy AA/FD, there are dozens of lesser classes for everything from Model T Fords to the one step below AA/FC (Funny Cars).  They are so named because they look funny.  Really.  There are even classes for motorcycles.  And, maybe even most importantly, a ticket to get in to the race is a ticket to the pits.  That means you can get up close and personal with the stars of this sport.  As in, shoulder to shoulder.  You talk to them, they talk back.  They're famous, but they don't seem to know it yet.  There's no other sport with this level of access to their stars.

Now, if watching one AA/FD dragster tear down the track, picture two of them!  22,000 side-by-side horsepower, sucking Goodyear blimps worth of oxygen out of the atmosphere, depressing your chest with the waves of air pressure as they go by, and screaming with the howl of a thousand banshees, doing their best to homogenize all those dainty little inner ear parts and pieces you hope to keep hearing with.  Not kidding on the noise.  Deafening.  Think two 747s taking off 50 feet away.  Yeah. 

So, if this tweaks your interest, and it certainly should, be sure to check out the NHRA's Finals in Pomona in early November.  The experience is unforgettable...