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Drag Racing Performance Facts
The fastest Top Fuel Dragsters can attain terminal speeds of over 330 mph while covering the quarter-mile distance in roughly 4.45 seconds. It’s often related that Top Fuel dragsters are the fastest accelerating vehicles on Earth, quicker even than the space shuttle launch vehicle or catapult-assisted jet fighter.
As of July 2009, the world record for a quarter-mile standing start pass is 4.428 seconds set by Tony Schumacher. Schumacher also holds the top speed record for the quarter mile at 336.15 mph, set in Hebron, OH that same year. Top Fuel races are now held over a 1,000 ft. distance for safety reasons; the record under the new rules is also held by Tony Schumacher at 3.771 seconds, and the top speed record is held by Larry Dixon at 321.58 mph.
Note that drag racing rules require a record run be backed up within one percent in the same meet in order to count as a record; hydrogen peroxide rocket dragsters such as Sammy Miller and Kitty O'Neil's 3.22 ET and 412 mph quarter-mile world records set in 1977 are not official because they failed to back up those runs within one percent, per NHRA and FIA rules. In fact, a vehicle traveling at a steady 200 mph as it crosses the starting line will be beaten to the finish line by a top fuel dragster starting from a dead stop at the same moment. Additionally, through the use of large multiple braking parachutes, the astounding performance of 0 to 330 mph and then back to 0 in 20 seconds can be obtained. Using twin drag parachutes, deceleration of up to 5 Gs can be attained, enough to cause detached retina. The legendary Don Garlits, holder of multiple records (first 200-mph run, first 270-mph run) had to retire because of a detached retina.
The faster categories of drag racing are an impressive spectacle, with engines of over 8000 horsepower and noise outputs to match, cars that look like bizarre parodies of standard street cars (funny cars), and the ritual of burnouts where, prior to the actual timed run, the competitors cause their car's driving wheels to spin while stationary or moving forward slowly, thus heating up the tires to proper working temperature and laying down a sticky coat of rubber on the track surface (which may have been coated with VHT Trackbite or similar to increase traction) to get optimum grip on the all-important launch.
The Blown Alcohol and nitrous oxide-injected Pro Modifieds with their 2012 hp engines are capable of running in the low six-second range at over 230 mph. The IHRA Pro Stocks are just behind, running in the 6.3 second range at over 215 mph, while the NHRA Pro Stocks run in the mid-sixes at over 200 mph. Top Sportsman and Top Dragster, the two fastest sportsman classes, run a bracket style race and can range from high sevens at over 170 mph to 6.4s at 210 mph. Super Comp/Quick Rod are either dragsters or doorslammers, but run with a throttle stop. Some cars can run as low as a 7.50 at around 180 mph without a throttle stop, but use it in order to hit an 8.90 index. Super Gas/Super Rod and Super Street/Hot Rod run with a 9.90 and 10.90 index respectively, but both run with a throttle stop.
Another class of car is the Sport Compact class that use power-to-weight ratio to get performance. The Fiat Topolino was the first to be used this way, in the notorious AA/FA, or Fuel Altered, followed by the more conventional modified VW Beetle. A turbocharger or supercharger is very common, and often necessary to break the 12-second barrier. Cars have progressed rapidly though and can now even run seven-second quarter miles.
In 2001, the NHRA bought out NIRA and renamed it the Sport Compact category featuring such cars, and while Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and Subaru are very popular, the NHRA has also permitted General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler cars to participate in Sport Compact.
With NHRA rule changes in recent years making Pro Stock cars more compact, a change from an 500 cubic inches (8.2 L) V-8 engine to a modified factory four or six cylinder double overhead camshaft engine can easily convert a Pro Stock car to Sport Compact Pro Rear Wheel Drive car. The cars are separated by performance, and since 2003 categories have been split based on the car's drive wheels. Ironically, almost all NHRA Sport Compact records for elapsed time and speed are held by MOPAR (Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Plymouth), General Motors and Ford cars, rather than the imports.
With the decline in sport compact drag racing in the United States, and the demise of the NOPI-NHRA sport compact series in 2008, the NHRA reclassified sport compact racing by classifying the cars within the mainstream categories, allowing the cars to race against traditional domestic cars and street rods in traditional series. Effective July 17, 2008, the NHRA permitted the upper class of sport compact racing—Pro Rear Wheel Drive, Front Wheel Drive, Modified, and Hot Rod categories to participate in the Competition Eliminator class, while in 2009, "all motor" categories in Sport Compact will have their own class (EX) in Super Stock, allowing the cars to race against traditional drag racing cars.
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