Ever wondered just how incredible these machines are? This is what 11,000 horsepower does to the Hydraulink Top Fuel Dragster at launch!  

1. One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic-inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower (11,000 HP) than the first 5 rows at the V8 Supercars field.
2. Under full throttle, the Hydraulink Top Fueler engine consumes 4.54 to 5.67 litres of nitromethane per second; a fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate with 25% less energy being produced.
3. A stock Dodge Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to merely drive the dragster's supercharger.
4. With 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into a near-solid form before ignition. Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock at full throttle!
5. At the stoichiometric 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitromethane the flame front temperature measures 3899 degrees Celsius.
6. Nitromethane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, dissociated from atmospheric water vapor by the searing exhaust gasses.
7. Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug.This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder.
8. Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After 1/2 way, the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust valves at 760 degrees Celsius. The engine can only be shut down by cutting the fuel flow.
9. If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in the affected cylinders and then explodes with sufficient force to blow cylinder heads off the block in pieces or split the block in half.
10. Dragsters reach over 500 KPH before you have completed reading this sentence.
11. In order to exceed 500 MPH in 4.0 seconds, dragsters must accelerate an average of over 4 G's. In order to reach 320 KPH well before half-track, the launch acceleration approaches 8 G's.
12. Top Fuel engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light!
13. Including the burnout, the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load.
14. The redline is actually quite high at 9500 RPM.
15. THE BOTTOM LINE: Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, & for once, NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated $1,000 per second at least!
16. 0 to 160 KPF in .8 seconds (the first 60 feet of the run)
17. 0 to 320 KPH in 2.2 seconds (the first 350 feet of the run)
18. 6 g-forces at the starting line (nothing accelerates faster on land)
19. 6 negative g-forces upon deployment of twin chutes at 500 KPH in Australian Top Fuel
20. Dragster accelerates quicker than any other land vehicle on earth, quicker than a jet fighter plane . . . quicker than the space shuttle.