General Chat
Q:
Some pretty interesting info here that I thought I would share. Having seen this in action before, or maybe the lack of it, when Ray Higley went airborn and flew over the finish line at the Motorplex. Why you ask did he 'fly' over the finish line? Because the left side header broke off, the resulting thrust from the exhaust propelled the car into the air, at least till enough of it got under the body which sent it flying, and Higley was able to return to earth....on all fours! He even managed not to crash into John Force, who was in the left lane at the time. Thank God for a faster car, or Force would have been really caught up in the mess.
Enjoy!
Do you know why the header pipes point upward on Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars? It's not just for the cool flame show during night sessions. Those upturned pipes actually serve a function -- keeping the 7,000 horsepower machine glued to the racetrack. It turns out that each of the eight exhaust ports produces around 800 pounds of downforce, for a total push of 6,400 pounds of downforce. Combined with the wings on a Top Fuel dragster (3,000 pounds on the front and 6,000 more on the back) or the rear deck of a Funny Car, which adds 6,000 pounds of downforce to an accelerating flopper, the header pipes serve a very important role in getting the car down the track.
http://www.nhra.com/counter.asp
Ken
'82ZX n/a 2+2
'02 Sportster XL1200C
A:
If the exhaust has that much downforce, they need to let them power a couple of turbos. With that much downforce, there would be NO turbo lag. Haha.
God must love stupid people, he made SOOOOO many of them!
A:
Those 500 ci Hemis don't need turbos :)
However AEM has a new dragster powered by twin turbos. It's Ara Arslanian's car, the guy who runs the mid 6 second Toyota Solara...it's actually the same motor. That should be a pretty mean machine once they get it running and make some passes.
A:
I'd of thought they'd point them out the back in that case!! turn the downforce into thrust!!
Phil
1981 280zxt
5-speed conversion,3.9 R200,Eibach springs,Tokico struts,Energy Suspension,K&N CAI,AutoMeter A/F, Boost, Fuel Gauges,Cusco Strut Bar,Greddy B Spec II boost control,Jeffp 3in mandrel exhaust,Magnaflow,Spearco Cooler, HKS BOV, 10 psi
A:
Is there a vid of the flying funny car? Sounds like it would have been an incredible sight.
'73 Turbo, not much stock. Sold now... :-(
A:
There was at one time, but that has been a few years back. I did a quick search and was able to find out it was in '97, and that he did hit Force in the back... Wow how memory fades :-) ....but I didn't find a vid...maybe it is buried a little deeper than I went.
It was a pretty awesome sight. My Bro and I were at about the thousand foot mark when it happened. The front end started to raise (which is not unusual), then the whole car just took air, and in a flash the body came off. By that time he had lifted, and it came back down to tera firma. You never know what's gonna happen when there is Nitro in the air.
Ken
'82ZX n/a 2+2
'02 Sportster XL1200C