its a fact

>* 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 11/2 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
>vapor 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 ½
>way,
>the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust valves at
>1400 degrees F. The engine can only be 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
>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
>US$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.