Marc s
NASA AIX
Mid 7 G's at the launch; 2-3 g's when you put the chutes out. Never had the luxury of a Top Fuel dragster or funny car but I have driven a blown alcohol dragster, blown alcohol funny car, and an injected nitro dragster. Quickest/Fastest was the injected-nitro car.....5.42/272 mph. Pretty simple car to drive actually. Aim it and nail it. If it kept all eight cylinders lit the damn thing was fast, fast, fast.
The alcohol funny car, however......was the real bitch to stage and drive. Lots of rpm staging, 5 g's on the launch, one hand on the wheel and one on the handbrake because it is going to shake the tires on the one-two gear change, steer it back into the groove, shift it again with both hands on the wheel because it will try to move again, once it's in the groove put one hand on the chute lever, when you see the finish line marker push the chute lever....lift.....hit the fuel shutoff.....start easing the brake handle back........*bam*.....chutes hit, easy with the brake so it doesn't start bouncing......etc, etc, etc. All this under six seconds at 260 mph.
"Fun" doesn't even come close.
SD explained it very well. The Fuel Altered I drive has run a best of a 5.61 @ 271 with a .882 60'. It is actually pretty easy to drive because all you do is try and keep it straight and keep the throttle down and you have both hands on the wheel from start to finish.
Pre-stage, engage the second pump, let the clutch out, ease up on the brake and ease it into into the stage beams, pull the brake, see yellows and hammer down.
My blown alky altered is more difficult for the reasons SD noted. My car only runs mid 6's at just over 210 with 1.0 60' and a 408 cubic inch big block Chevy. But it's a bunch more fun to drive than the fuel car and you have to do it with one hand on the wheel.
Pre-staged, clutch is in, rev the engine to clean it out, set the line lock soft, drag the car into the stage beams, raise the RPM's to 8,800 RPM's, see yellows, dump the clutch and hammer down, 2.1 seconds later the shift light comes on at 9,200 RPM's and shift(get ready to pull the brake a little because of tire shake), 1.6 seconds later the light is on and shift, move your hand from the brake handle to the chute handle, 2.7 seconds later pull the chute just before the stripe, drive into the chutes, pull the fuel shut off and ground the mag.
The difference to me between a 6.50 and a 5.60 is very little. The difference between a .882 60' (68 MPH) and a 1.00 (60 MPH) it's only 8 MPH difference at the 60' beams. However, you can really feel it!
