7000 or 8000?? (1 Viewer)

[clwill]

For a number of years NHRA talked about "7000 horsepower monsters", then a couple of years ago somebody ran some kind of test and claimed 8000+ horsepower and the ads all changed to say "8000 horsepower". Now I see they've backtracked to 7000 in the press releases and ads.

Anybody else notice this? So which is it? And how could you measure a number that's probably 4x what any existing dyno could measure? And is this the best thing to be promoting (as opposed to "side-by-side at over 300mph", or "every ticket's a pit pass", or ... )?

 

[.]

Connie Kalitta mounted a strain gauge on the reverser shaft of Doug's dragster a few years ago. A strain gauge measures torque...... once you have a torque number you can mathematically figure horsepower. Torque X RPM / 5252 = HP.

On a 4.42x pass, Doug's car made 7933HP at 2.6 seconds after the hit. Using a strain gauge only allows you to measure how much power you're actually applying to the ground. If the tires would have spun on that pass, the torque numbers would have fallen off to near zero. It works the other way too..... if track prep and tires were better and could provide better traction than was available on that day, the torque number could have been much higher. As you increase load (better traction) on a nitro engine it can burn more fuel, more fuel = more power! It's hard to say but if you could somehow guarantee 100% traction and the engine didn't blow up I'd be willing to bet the HP numbers would be well over 10,000 HP.

So, to answer your question.... It depends which track they're at, how it's prepped and what the weather conditions are on that day. Some days they only make 7000HP, some days they can make 8000HP and on those rare record setting runs they're probably making more than 8000hp!

 

[clwill]

I was actually intrigued by NHRA changing their ads from 7000 to 8000 and now back to 7000...

 

[Super Mod]

So less VHT = less HP ??

 

[T.Smith]

For a number of years NHRA talked about "7000 horsepower monsters", then a couple of years ago somebody ran some kind of test and claimed 8000+ horsepower and the ads all changed to say "8000 horsepower". Now I see they've backtracked to 7000 in the press releases and ads.

Anybody else notice this? So which is it? And how could you measure a number that's probably 4x what any existing dyno could measure? And is this the best thing to be promoting (as opposed to "side-by-side at over 300mph", or "every ticket's a pit pass", or ... )?

One of the frequent question we get in the pits is, "how much power does it make?", so why not promote it, it's part of drag racing's identity.

 

[NHRADeuce]

I was actually intrigued by NHRA changing their ads from 7000 to 8000 and now back to 7000...

NHRA has a list of "official" numbers that they use every year. Those numbers range from the number of member tracks to the number of members to the HP of a TF car. These are the numbers that are used in everything that NHRA publishes throughout the year.

It is my understanding that the 7000 number comes from 2 things - the average HP on a typical run (see above for HP explanation, that's pretty much right on) and insurance reasons.

 

[NitroRichFire]

Christopher, thanks for bringing this up. I too have wonder about the change from 7,000 to 8,000.

For a number of years NHRA talked about "7000 horsepower monsters", then a couple of years ago somebody ran some kind of test and claimed 8000+ horsepower and the ads all changed to say "8000 horsepower". Now I see they've backtracked to 7000 in the press releases and ads.

Anybody else notice this? So which is it? And how could you measure a number that's probably 4x what any existing dyno could measure? And is this the best thing to be promoting (as opposed to "side-by-side at over 300mph", or "every ticket's a pit pass", or ... )?

 

[Nick Name]

Brian pretty much explained how a nitro motor works. If you could load the motor hard enough to burn all the fuel that you see going out as header flames, etc. there is probably no engine block or crankshaft that could stand up to it.

One of the reasons NHRA mandated rear end gear ratios is because people like Snow and Head were running big tall rear gears to load the motor and make it burn more fuel. It would have been interesting to see where that path would have led.