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* One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower
than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500.
* Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1=BD gallons of
nitromethane
  per second; a fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate with
25%
  less energy being produced.
* A stock Dodge Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to drive the
  dragster supercharger.
* With 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive,
  the fuel mixture is compressed into a near-solid form before ignition.
* Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock at full throttle.
* At the stoichiometric 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitromethane the
  flame front temperature measures 7050 degrees F.
* Nitromethane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the
  stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, dissociated from atmospheric
  water vapour by the searing exhaust gases.
* Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of
  an arc welder in each cylinder.
* Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a
  pass. After 1/2 way, the engine is dieseling from compression plus the
  glow of the exhaust valves at 1400 degrees F.  The engine can only
shut
  down by cutting the fuel flow.
* If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up
  in the affected cylinders and then explodes with sufficient force to
blow
  cylinder heads off the block in pieces or split the block in half.
* In order to exceed 300 mph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must accelerate at
  an average of over 4G's. In order to reach 200 mph well before
half-track,
  the launch acceleration approaches 8G's.
* Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have completed
  reading this sentence.
* Top Fuel Engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to
  light!
* Including the burnout the engine must only survive 900 revolutions
  under load.
* The redline is actually quite high at 9500rpm.
* The Bottom Line; Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew
  worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an
estimated $1,000.00 per second. The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed
time   record is 4.441 seconds for the quarter mile (10/05/03, Tony
Schumacher). *The top speed record is 333.00 mph (533 km/h) as measured
over the last 66'  of the run (09/28/03 Doug Kalitta).
Putting all of this into perspective:
You are driving the average $140,000 Lingenfelter "twin-turbo" powered
Corvette Z06. Over a mile up the road, a Top Fuel dragster is staged and
ready to launch down a quarter mile strip as you pass. You have the
advantage of a flying start. You run the 'Vette hard up through the
gears
and blast across the starting line and past the dragster at an honest
200
mph. The 'tree' goes green for both of you at that moment. The dragster
launches and starts after you. You keep your foot down hard, but you
hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums and within 3
seconds the dragster catches and passes you. He beats you to the finish
line, a quarter mile away from where you just passed him.
Think about it, from a standing start, the dragster had spotted you 200
mph
and not only caught, but nearly blasted you off the road when he passed
you within a mere 1320 foot long race course.
That, folks, is acceleration.

(=2E...and a subsequent response from John xxx)

Julio,
Pretty close.  We make the supercharger seals exclusively for John Force
Racing and we are allowed some special privileges. WE also get lots of
interesting information.
Fuel tanks holds 17 gallons and a run will consume 10 to 15 gallons
depending on the weather.  Cool and dry allows a considerable increase
in
fuel usage: up to almost 50%.  At idle (both lines open) they consume 1
gallon per 10 seconds.  The actual run is about 9 - 12 gallons, closer
to
2-3 GPS.  The burnout uses very little fuel, about the same as at idle
with
both lines/pumps going.
Fuel is injected in three places: above the blower, under the blower and
into the port darn near at the valve.  Parasitic loss on a 14-71 blower
is
about 450hp at idle and 900 at WOT.  A 1.5% increase in air flow will
negate this loss!!  This is a function of nitro and can not be
correlated
to gasoline or alcohol.
Boost is around 48 to 56 lbs, timing is aroud 50 to 56 degrees and
clutch
lock up (1:1) occurs between 600 and 1000 ft.
Torque and HP are calculated via a crush sleeve on the drive shaft,  at
Maple Grove they were makin' a LOW of 6270 lbs/ft of torque.  Horsepower
will vary from about 5900 to not quite 8000 and it is mostly weather
related.  Cooler denser air makes more power as you can burn more
nitromethane.
Finally, in optimal conditions they will sometimes simply slow the
blower
down to keep consistency . . . every now and then they do "go for it".
You would not believe what the crush sleeve reported on the run where
John
stood the car up. It was on it's way to the first ever 4.6 pass by a
flopper.
Some of your information is not too accurate and I will answer that
privately.
John