Western Sydney International Dragway

Western Sydney International Dragway Details

In February we watched some drag races on the Western Sydney International Dragway. There are different categories the cars belong to. The most interesting and also the loudest is the Top Fuel category. In this category the cars run on a maximum of 85% nitromethane and about 15% methanol (racing alcohol) instead of gasoline!

The cars are longer and narrower and they have thin front tyres because they are built only for one purpose: To get as fast as possible from A to B on a straight line.

Top Fuel cars compete in a 0.4km race. The fastest cars complete it in less than 4.5 seconds which is about 530km/h! The acceleration of a Top Fuel dragster from 0 to 160km/h is less than 0.8 seconds. There are huge forces (about 5.7g) the driver has to compete with during this acceleration.

The power of these engines is between 7000 and 8300 horsepower’s and estimates suggest a torque output of 5100-6750 Nm which is a lot. I think the Viper has about 700-900 Nm.

Of course they are not only very fast but also very, very noisy. They create at full throttle a nearly deafening amount of noise (over 150dB), enough to cause some peoples eardrums physical pain. Months after this event I still remember this intense level of sound. It is so intense that it is also felt as vibrations all over one’s body. I tried to take some pictures and to record the burnouts which wasn’t easy because your body automatically reacts to this level of sound and so some of the material is partly unsteady.

Now turn on the volume of your speakers and watch this to get an impression of the Top Fuel cars. Double click the video for full screen mode.

NOTE: You need to install the Silverlight PlugIn if you can’t see the video. I wanted to test the Streaming Service of Microsoft, and so far it works pretty well.