Watch "Sports Science dragster" on YouTube

[SHOnUup]

Sports Science dragster: http://youtu.be/7ez2cQpVUAc

Rich

[SHOdded]

Thanks for putting this up!  Makes you appreciate the extremes of the sport

[SHOnUup]

Pretty cool watch I thought too. Never knew they only ran 7 psi in those huge tires, and that it actually adds in the overall run with stored energy. I had thought at a point, to little pressure to get a good launch would hurt the high end???

Rich

[BiGMaC]

very cool... the comparisons they use a re staggering.

[SHOdded]

I had thought at a point, to little pressure to get a good launch would hurt the high end???

Good question.  They have to have the optimal point figured out very carefully.
http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring06/Gregorzek/tires.html
Rear Slick Tires

So how do you get a top fuel dragster to stick to the ground with as much power as they have? 17.5 inches of contact between the tire and the ground is how. This is more than 10 inches wider than a typical street tire. And because drag tires have no grooves to help handling in wet weather, the contact width for a drag tire is almost 4 times more than a street tire. And this is just the width we are talking about.

A Top Fuel Dragster tire is 36 inches in diameter and uses about 7psi which means that a whole lot of rubber will be in contact with the ground. Big tires create big smoke clouds. Burnouts are done for three reasons:
•To heat the tires making them stickier which creates the necessary traction needed when a Top Fuel Dragster launches from the starting line.
•To lay two patches of rubber, one for each tire, on the race track which helps guides the Top Fuel Dragster in a straight line at the launch.
•To remove debris from the tires which ensures all of the rubber gets in contact with the racing surface.

http://stao.ca/VLresources/cruciblearticles/07Nov2Cdragsters.pdf

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/vintage-speed/anatomy-of-a-top-fuel-dragster
VIDEO

[SHOnUup]

Cool stuff

Rich

[SHOnUup]

very cool... the comparisons they use a re staggering.

Yeah, the formula one car getting a 175mph running start is still overtaken in the 1/4 mile....mind blowing



Rich