Tony Stewart drives a Top Fuel Dragster: Tony Stewart is in a relationship with NHRA Top Fuel Dragster driver Leah Pruett, and they're now engaged. It seems she...

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

Tony Stewart is in a relationship with NHRA Top Fuel Dragster driver Leah Pruett, and they're now engaged. It seems she has gotten him interested in drag racing. She took him to Frank Hawley's drag racing school, where many top NHRA drivers learned to drive dragsters. Then he did some test runs in Leah's top fuel car. No word whether he plans to compete, but it seems he was interested in learning all the details necessary to compete rather than just seeing what it was like to drive one. It's not surprising that he was running competitive times right out of the box, since he has driven just about every other type of race car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt_B06WIGI4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz38e9u3Ui8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BS_AyuBrRs

pmorin Loc: Huntington Beach, Palm Springs

I went to my first drag race at Lions in Long Beach CA when I was 15. Spent many an afternoon with nitro in my nostrils since then.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I had to laugh at the term "drag racing school." I realize you can't just jump into one of them a go, but instruction for a 5-second ride struck me as funny.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

jerryc41 wrote:

I had to laugh at the term "drag racing school." I realize you can't just jump into one of them a go, but instruction for a 5-second ride struck me as funny.

It's surprising how much there is to do in a top fuel run, including the burnout and staging. John Force, 16 time fuel funny car champion still competing, and winning, at age 72, sent his daughters to that school when they decided they wanted to compete. The top fuel dragsters are now hitting 330 mph in less than 4 seconds.

Canisdirus

I read something a long time ago about torque rating and cars by category.
It went something like
Nascar ... XXX
Indy ... XXXX
Drag rails ... too high to be measured. Lol... that's torque.

Bayou

Canisdirus wrote:

I read something a long time ago about torque rating and cars by category.
It went something like
Nascar ... XXX
Indy ... XXXX
Drag rails ... too high to be measured. Lol... that's torque.

Just guessing here, but I'd think that a Nascar engine would make more torque than an Indy car since the Nascars are much bigger and heavier, have larger engines, and are almost as fast.

Dragsters? Yep, off the charts. I've long wanted to see some drag racing...one of these days!

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

Canisdirus wrote:

I read something a long time ago about torque rating and cars by category.
It went something like
Nascar ... XXX
Indy ... XXXX
Drag rails ... too high to be measured. Lol... that's torque.

A conventional dynamometer couldn't measure a top fuel engine because the engines won't run long enough at full power to get an accurate reading. Then someone came up with a torque sensor which goes inside the engine and could measure torque during an actual run. They came up with 7400 ft/lbs of torque, which translates to around 11,000 horsepower.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Given Tony’s talents racing, I’m sure he would excel if he gives it a try--the guy can drive anything and go fast.

FredCM Loc: Central Illinois

The fuel cars run 1,000 feet, They are so fast now that a lot of tracks are too short to provide space to slow the cars if they run the full quarter mile. So it's 1,000 feet. It's not unusual to see where a top fuel dragster's times are 330+ mph in 2.7 seconds. 2.7 seconds, 0 - 330 mph over 1,000 feet. Now jerryC41, care to give it a go?

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

FredCM wrote:

The fuel cars run 1,000 feet, They are so fast now that a lot of tracks are too short to provide space to slow the cars if they run the full quarter mile. So it's 1,000 feet. It's not unusual to see where a top fuel dragster's times are 330+ mph in 2.7 seconds. 2.7 seconds, 0 - 330 mph over 1,000 feet. Now jerryC41, care to give it a go?

That's 3.7 seconds, or actually the quickest times are in the 3.6s

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

FredCM wrote:

The fuel cars run 1,000 feet, They are so fast now that a lot of tracks are too short to provide space to slow the cars if they run the full quarter mile. So it's 1,000 feet. It's not unusual to see where a top fuel dragster's times are 330+ mph in 2.7 seconds. 2.7 seconds, 0 - 330 mph over 1,000 feet. Now jerryC41, care to give it a go?

Canisdirus

Bayou wrote:

Just guessing here, but I'd think that a Nascar engine would make more torque than an Indy car since the Nascars are much bigger and heavier, have larger engines, and are almost as fast.

Dragsters? Yep, off the charts. I've long wanted to see some drag racing...one of these days!

They do have more torque than either Indy of F-1. They are slower than the other two because of that weight.
Less nimble too...which makes sense.
Totally different setups for totally different race needs.
F-1 is probably the king ... except for rail cars.

I used to go to Englishtown Racetrack as a teenager.
Was even able to see the fastest car in the world at the time... called...Vanishing Point... it was a blur.

Charlie157 Loc: San Diego, CA

In my early 20's I had the opportunity to help kick start the Little Red Wagon. When the engine lit up tears ran down my face and I remember vividly the rumbling in my chest. I was impressed.

One Rude Dawg Loc: Athol, ID

JohnSwanda wrote:

It's surprising how much there is to do in a top fuel run, including the burnout and staging. John Force, 16 time fuel funny car champion still competing, and winning, at age 72, sent his daughters to that school when they decided they wanted to compete. The top fuel dragsters are now hitting 330 mph in less than 4 seconds.

I have some old hot rod mags that have articles wondering if they will ever make it to 200 mph. That was some time ago.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

One Rude Dawg wrote:

I have some old hot rod mags that have articles wondering if they will ever make it to 200 mph. That was some time ago.

When I was a teenage drag racing fan, the top fuelers were just starting to go under 7 seconds and over 200 mph. And now the pro stock cars are doing 210 with naturally aspirated engines on gasoline, and the pro stock motorcycles are just starting to go over 200.