How It Works-Amazing Vehicles

Wings

Front and rear w ings keep the car

on the ground. Rear produces

over eight tons of downforce with

t wo tons at the front.

Engine

The eight-litre supercharged and

injected V8 aluminium race

engine runs on Nitromethane

and produces 8,000bhp.

© Sharon Dawes

How It Works

fantasy drag race

We pit fi ve different

contenders head-to-head in a

drag race to 400 metres

Drag racing is a dangerous

yet thrilling extreme spor t

1. Lights
   Light beams across the
   starting line are broken
   when the front wheels
   are in position.


2. Pre-
   staged
   Two bulbs atop
   the Christmas
   tree are lit up.


3. Staged
   When both drivers have
   both bulbs lit they are in
   ‘stage’ and ready to go.

© Sharon Dawes

© Sharon Dawes

© Bugatti

© Khaosaming

Christmas tree

The starting system at a drag strip

4. Countdown
   The star ter fl icks a
   switch and the lights
   count dow n in 0.4 of a
   second before the
   green comes on.


5. False start
   Go too quick and you get a red
   light, which means you lef t
   too soon and you’re out.

© Sharon Dawes

Top
speed:
18mph Top
speed:
85mph

Top

speed:

105mph

Top

speed:

254mph speed:Top

330mph

experience seven negative Gs.

The drivers are encased in a steel

cage, with full fi re safety

protection.

Because it is so powerful, the

engine takes a hammering every

run. This means the crew have to

take the whole thing apart, check

for breakages and replace

anything and rebuild it normally

w ithin one and a half hours for

the next round of racing.

The Nitromethane fuel

used to power the V8

engines is highly explosive

Timeline of a

drag race

A lot can happen in

just 4.6 seconds

1-2 seconds

Hunch

Tyres growing, front wheels settle down,

clutch locks up, now doing 180mph, fi ve Gs.

2-3 seconds

Starting to fl y

Ty res almost f ully grow n, clutch

now almost ‘locked’, one gallon

of f uel a second is used, now up to

250mph, four Gs, aerofoils (w ings)

producing eight tons of dow nforce.

3-4 seconds

At full tilt

Ty res at ma ximum grow th, clutch

locked 1-1 w ith the engine, now up

to 300mph and settled to three Gs.

4.6-5 seconds

Ouch

320mph, mov ing at 120 metres per

second, parachutes out, minus

seven Gs and 100mph deceleration

0-1 seconds

Launch

Throttle mashed, rear tyres

squat, front wheels lift, 100mph

in 0.8s, clutch slipping seven Gs.

x2 © Sharon Dawes

x1 © Dave Jones, 2009

DID YOU KNOW? The Nitromethane used to fuel the dragster costs £40 per gallon and one run uses 18 gallons