Off topic but frickin' awesome

Sorry this is not about camaros but I know you guys like to BS about other stuff once in a while too...

I Just went to the NHRA drag races in Brainerd, MN this past weekend and it was awesome. I watched as Tony Schumacher (drives the U.S. Army top fuel dragster) set a new trap speed record of 337 MPH in the quarter mile in 4.446 seconds (time record is 4.441 also by Tony). I was totally blown away by, it by far one of the funnest events I have ever been to. I also got to meet Cruz Pedregon who drives the Advance Auto parts top fuel funny car and get a bunch of autographs. Anyways, sorry for being off topic but I had so much fun I just had to tell you guys about it. Oh yeah, the party after racing on Saturday was really freakin' awesome too...

thats crazy fast i went to a drag track not to long ago and they had a drag car there it was freakin crazy awesome. i was shooting fire blast like 30 40 feet behind it everything just shook when it took off they didn't get a time on it because it was to fast for the censors or some crap like that but it was probly around 2 or 3 seconds for 1/8 and only takes another half a second to do the 1/4

Some of the smaller cars were crazy too, I saw a grand am looked completely stock, the damn thing did the 1/4 in like 11 secs. And there were cavaliers that ran low 9's it was nuts.

man over 300mph in under 4 seconds?? thats nuts, i wanna do that

my uncle was a general manager for the NHRA drag stip in atlanta, got to meet john force and see him race, pretty freakin awesome. but anyways i asked him how much power the top fuel cars have and he said 6000 and the rules guys pay pretty close attention to make sure that the playing field is level. got the watch from the luxury box which faces right down the track, they shoot the whole building when they took off

I'd like to be in one of those.. be so much fun.

oh yea i almost forgot, when i went like 4 years ago there was a little girl like 13 or 14 who was racing one of the top fuel cars. she didn't have a license but she could go over 300mph in under 5 seconds, kids these days

Ill be going to the World Nationals Aug 28th. Expect pictures :)

Man, that's cookin'. I remember when I was a kid and they broke 7 seconds in the nitro-methane class. That was a big deal then. People were talking as they do now about blacking out at the starting line due to high G-forces and crap like that. Funny stuff. I think my dad may still have a picture of me sitting in Big Daddy's Swamp Rat II when I was 9 or 10 years old. We didn't really get to talk to him, but when my dad asked if he could take a picture of me in his car I remember a reply that went something like "yeah, sure - just watch your head on the way in". In my book, that made him one cool dude. I'm gonna have to go over there to my dad's place to see if I can find that picture to make sure I have the story right. I was only a snot-nose kid and didn't know who Don Gartlits was until that night. I do remember for sure my dad telling me it was the fastest car in the world at the time. For the time period that would have been Big Daddy and he was there at that race. At any rate, it was a great memory.
My dad talks sometimes about the old old days when they broke 10 seconds. I don't think they even had a nitro class then. He says all the cars were front engine then and dangerous as hell if you overpressured a blower. All those parts flying at you while going a couple hundred miles an hour. Scary stuff.
Gotta go find that pic. Later.

I think the coolest part is going back in the pits and meeting the drivers, and then seeing them fire them up to warm up the engine and rev it to seat the clutch. It is so freaking loud and the nitro burns the eyes and sinuses, but it is an awesome experience. And I think this year the cars have around 7000 HP out of a 500 cubic inch block supercharged of course...

man, i couldn't imagine those things with a 1000 more hp. those things shake you to the core then they take off. i've got a lot of respect for someone that can handle that kind of power and speed

Yeah, Cruz Pedregon the driver for Advance smoked his tires on one run and the car started to get out of control so he backed out of the throttle let her settle down and then got back on it and still salvaged a high 5 second run, he still lost though... That is what I call a good driver

no kiddin, i rode in a 10 second camaro last week, that thing took off and i could barley breath. i couldn't imagine how it would feel to have something like 10 times as powerful as that fishtail on ya. i know when they wreck it ain't pretty pretty though, lots of fire and lots or car goin everywhere

AWESOME. I can't imagine. I've been in and driven some fast cars (even built and owned a couple) - but nothing like 7000HP. I wouldn't know what to do with myself or my stiffy.

If I remember right, you pull somthing like 6g's from the line, and a negative 6g when you pop the chute. It was numbers close to those (read it somewhere I think).

Dude Negative 6Gs would cause you to black out and possibly worse, so I really dont think so.. Hell not even fighter pilots go through negative 6Gs, only up to 2-3 and you black out from that.

It's 4 Gs from the start and 6 when the chute opens.

Both positive im guessing?

They are neither up nor down which is what causes blackouts and redouts. Since the force of gravity pulling the blood one way or the other in the body is what causes you to blackout from lack of blood flow to the brain or redout from too much blood. The drivers have these forces excerted on them laterally which is one reason why the drivers can't breath very well if at all while they run the 1/4. Negative G's only occur when something is being pushed back towards the source of gravity faster than 9.8 meters per second.

It's 4 Gs from the start and 6 when the chute opens.

Thanks for clarification on the G's and the info and blacking out.....:) Always good to learn new things.

I know about blacking out and redding out because i've read alot of stuff about Pilots and what techniques they teach em to stop em or control em if you will. I always thought there was always either a + or a - G.

I always thought there was always either a + or a - G.

yea, i thought that to...

There is, but as I said negative gs are when your body is being pushed back down towards the ground like on the hill of a roller coaster. When you are traveling towards the ground you feel like you're going to fly right out of the roller coaster, then when you hit the bottom of the hill you feel like you're going to be shot through the floor of the coaster and into the ground. That is the diffeence between negative and positive gs. In drag racing they only experience positive gs...

Well thats all you had to say. I know about how we experience negative and positive Gs.

yeah i heard about that, 337 dam thats fricken fast