Blast from the past

Ridgifumi · Post by **Ridgifumi** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 6:14 am

was just scrolling through some old pics on the MCN website and came across a pic of Byron Mills who ran a TRX in the 2004 Oz Nakedbike championship

Post by **dicky** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 8:22 am

Half naked?

dicky.

Post by **phuk72** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 10:33 am

Do you guys not have regs requiring an oil catch?

Ridgifumi · Post by **Ridgifumi** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 10:43 am

phuk72 wrote:Do you guys not have regs requiring an oil catch?

nah we just have bigger balls than pom's

Post by **Kevtrx849** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 5:25 pm

This is what was left after Byron binned it in at turn 4 (left hander) at QLD raceway that same year. They changed all the raceglass and fueltank, shook the gravel out of the FCR's and realigned the forks and went back out for the next race

CYA, Kev.

Shifty · Post by **Shifty** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 6:46 pm

Now I see why, he should off used bleu-spots.

Quan-Time · Post by **Quan-Time** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 8:02 am

typical aussies.. doin it hard, and doing us proud !

Triton · Post by **Triton** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 8:38 am

Should have used blue-spots... absolutely, the track layout goes:
Straight - BRAKES - tight 180 degree turn - straight - BRAKE - really tight 180 degree turn etc which is why it is unaffectionately known as the "paperclip"!

Post by **Max** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 1:41 pm

If it's anything like Darlington, maybe the should straighten out the hairpins after each earthquake.

Or is this some kind of sick Aussie joke?

Waz · Post by **Waz** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 11:09 pm

It truely is a paperclip

Post by **Max** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 11:28 pm

Well, at least it isn't built on a fault line.

burty · Post by **burty** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 10:12 am

Max wrote:Well, at least it isn't built on a fault line.

Actually it is very close to one, look at the right hand side of the image.

Post by **Max** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 10:26 am

You're right! But the MX boyz shouldn't have too much trouble with that.

I bet it's a bitch for the folks on that drag strip or small airport down there in the lower right corner though!

sherlock · Post by **sherlock** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 2:48 am

It's the braking area of the drag strip. Saw a top fueler go 515km/hr a few weeks ago, 4.36 I think

Post by **Max** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 5:51 am

sherlock wrote:It's the braking area of the drag strip. Saw a top fueler go 515km/hr a few weeks ago, 4.36 I think

Funny you mention that as I just finished reading this email from my uncle.

ACCELERATION PUT INTO PERSPECTIVE

* 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 nitro methane 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 merely drive the dragster's 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 nitro methane the flame front temperature measures 7050 degrees F.

* Nitro methane 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 1/2 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.

* Dragsters reach over 300 MPH before you have completed reading this sentence.

* In order to exceed 300 MPH in 4.5 seconds, dragsters must accelerate an average of over 4 G's. In order to reach 200 MPH well before half track, the launch acceleration approaches 8 G's.

* 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 9500 RPM.

* THE BOTTOM LINE: Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free,& for once, NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated $1,000 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 (533km/h) as measured over the last 66' of the run (09/28/03, Doug Kalitta).

Putting this all 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 & 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 & pass the dragster at an honest 200 MPH. The 'tree' goes green for both of you at that moment.

The dragster launches & starts after you. You keep your foot down hard, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums & within 3 seconds the dragster catches & 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 & not only caught, but nearly blasted you off the road when he passed you within a mere 1320 foot long race!

That's acceleration!