To the casual fan, top fuel is an overwhelming stack of stats and numbers. 320+ mph, 11,000hp, 0-100 in less than one second. They are huge numbers and insane numbers but do they really mean anything? What’s a good visual representation of what a top fuel car goes through on a run down the 1,000ft course? This. This video is exactly that. What you are going to see is a failed launch of Doug Kalitta’s top fuel car at the recent NHRA Keystone Nationals in Reading, Pennsylvania as shown in ultra slow motion. This is insanity in its purest form.
You are going to see a 300″ chassis made of chromoly tubing try to twist itself into a pretzel before actually launching itself completely airborne. Yes, all four wheels are off the ground at one brief point in this video. It is not because Doug Kalitta hit a bump or a jump in his car, it is because the sheer overwhelming power of the thing didn’t all make it to the ground and the result was a car that twisted up like a massive coil spring and then unloaded.
The other thing you will notice is that as soon as the tires broke traction the pipes went wet and they started launching massive clouds of unburned fuel into the air. In a nitro burning engine there’s only one way to keep the thing lit and that is to keep a load on it (sometimes even that is not good enough). As soon as the load comes off the engine because the tires are spinning, it cannot burn the fuel and the thing becomes a nitro fountain.
Kalitta is in the hunt for he 2016 NHRA top fuel world championship and the guys will be racing hard in Dallas, Vegas, and Pomona to try and pull it off!
Even Doug’s father, the great Connie Kalita, would have run a mile rather than sit in this thing as it attempted to rip itself apart.
I think that Top Fuel has hit its plateau as the motors are now putting out too much power for the chassis to handle. I wonder when the first aerospace inspired full monocoque carbon composite chassis will emerge. Fighter jets generate much more power yet their construction enables them to absorb it and also the G forces generated in combat flying. So a composite-chassised Top Fuel car should be able to get all that power down and I could see the first ever sub-3 second run on the horizon.
Doug`s father ?
This violent episode was the result of a “double-step” on the throttle. Doug partially opened the blades and barrel-valve before the tree came on. The car snapped out of the beams early, giving him a red light. Human nature caused him to lift his right foot off the loud pedal which threw all of his momentum forward plowing his foot back into the fuel and air feed 100%. So, what you are seeing is an unnatural Top Fuel launch sequence. They are violent, indeed. But typically never this disjointed.
A stiff monocoque design would require something that NONE of the current Top Fuel and Funny Car builders, tuners, crew, and drivers want to see…front and rear suspension. The chassis of a modern nitro car IS the suspension that provides weight transfer both during the launch and for stability down track. Taking that ability to bend, bow, and stretch would render these cars unable to make a pass without destroying the mandated Goodyear tires for 1000′ without tuneable suspension. Links, springs, shocks, and other items like that would increase cost and potential for mechanical failure to these cars.
and don’t forget weight
Doug’s father! try Doug’s uncle.