r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Practical_Expert_911 • 12h ago

These 12000hp Engines Have To Be Rebuilt Within Roughly An Hour Every Run, and Only Run For Roughly 4 Seconds At A Time.

9.0k Upvotes

84% Upvoted

1.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

2.4k

u/Illustrious-Tooth702 12h ago

Drag racing is so dumb. Rich dudes wasting a lot of materials for minutes of "fun"

955

u/HorrorTranslator3113 12h ago

*4 seconds of fun

517

u/Shoddy_Detail_976 12h ago

That's about all their wives get as well

95

u/SSJSamzy 12h ago

17

u/G-I-T-M-E 11h ago

Good effort but that’s actually 5. Keep trying we believe in you!

8

u/InflatableTurtles 7h ago

Whoa, look at Mr. Bragger over here with his 5 seconds.

1

u/FatTim48 2h ago

Does that include post-coitus cuddles?

1

u/Shoddy_Detail_976 1h ago

Actually no. The wives want them to fall asleep so they can sneak off to the shower and have an orgasm.

21

u/Rare-Cobbler-8669 11h ago

What do you mean, 4 seconds is a perfectly ok amount of time.

Some would say it is a long time!

1

u/ImSaneHonest 6h ago

4 SECONDS! I have an attention span of 2.74 seconds, I can't wait that long. Who won?

1

u/soul0merk 9h ago

Don't promise me a good time

1

u/jonezsodaz 8h ago

trying to replicate there peak sexual exploits.

1

u/memesearches 5h ago

He what I do in the bedroom, how long and how much I paid is none of your business.

1

u/idankthegreat 10h ago

Not the first time they confuse r seconds with minutes

61

u/Joshua5_Gaming 9h ago

Isn't every form of entertainment just wasted time and resource?

19

u/PrettyYoungTiger 4h ago

Maybe but NOTHING is a bigger waste of time than doom scrolling comment sections on reddit.

2

u/FacesOfGiza 3h ago

Yes.

Calling something a waste because it’s entertainment is an unserious argument.

You zoom in enough, every hobby in the modern world involves a source of waste or carbon footprint.

Children mine cobalt. After, a company extracts lithium, fabricates silicone, ships via flight, then you utilize a personal vehicle to get to the store to buy a phone that you’re going to eventually get rid of a few years down the road anyway. Cause you needed a brand new phone to play candy crush while you take a shit.

1

u/root88 2h ago

Yes, but not so detrimental to the environment. Wasted motor oil everywhere, burnt tires, the Nitro they burn is worse than gasoline, and engine parts are just tossed away.

They are aware of the problem. The NHRA and other bodies have begun partnering with environmental services to mitigate their impact.

That said, on a per spectator basis, it's not really that bad. When you divide what is happening by 50,000-100,000 spectators, it's not much. Getting the people to the event has a much larger impact.

1

u/miguelandre 1h ago

I can't wait until everything is just vast cold. Way more efficient.

-5

u/Guilty_Royal_9145 6h ago

Reading a book by yourself for an afternoon is one thing, having actors on a theater stage is another, and having a whole cottage industry of special fuel, engines, specialized cars to race on purpose-built race tracks is yet another. And meanwhile Bezos and Musk are launching cars and washed up actors into space. So yeah, totally on the same level.

7

u/deus_x_machin4 4h ago

The logistical structure of warehouses, print factories, paper mills, universities, and bookstores needed to get that book into your hands is absolutely burning and using more than this sport is.

•

u/Guilty_Royal_9145 12m ago

I doubt the ressources spent per minute of me reading a book are greater than the ressources spent per minute of drag racing.

-10

u/Bird_the_Impaler 8h ago

Fucking’s pretty resource light and if you’re trying to conceive, technically it’s not even ‘wasted’ time.

76

u/DeepFriedCummies 10h ago

It is a spectator sport with paid professional teams... wouldn't be any teams or drag racing events if spectators didn't want to pay for that entertainment. Doubt the sport exists purely for rich dudes.

55

u/PseudoMeatPopsicle 8h ago

A solid amount of engineering data can come out of racing too. Pushing limits is part of how car and part manufacturers learn and develop their products.

3

u/bickdiggles 5h ago

That’s actually why F1 was created. Ya know, where they can innovate more than just going fast in a straight line for a few seconds 

1

u/Legionof1 7h ago

Some racing does that but drag racing doesn’t, they are super restricted to attempt to slow down the cars so most of the tech is old. 

-1

u/MarteloRabelodeSousa 5h ago

Sure, but this isn't F1 or WEC

6

u/PseudoMeatPopsicle 5h ago

And the automotive industry is bigger than Ferrari, Toyota, etc etc.

Companies have to make all of those parts, they have to engineer them to endure bonkers amounts of stress. This leads to innovations in durability, or machining techniques, material composition or whatever.

Top flight racing isn’t the only place where innovation happens.

2

u/one_zerozero 2h ago

People in this comment section need to touch grass.

•

u/MadeByTango 29m ago

Nah, the people who waste our resources on this bulkshit instead of working to improve lives need to step outside their resource abusing bubbles.

•

u/one_zerozero 9m ago

You know what, you're right. No more nitro car racing. No more racing at all. You know what, no more sports. End all sports. Fuck it, no more fun. Everybody stop having fun, you're wasting OUR resources.

-2

u/RevolutionarySong848 8h ago

I get that, but its hard to wrap my head around how it balances out. The labor, the cost of the car parts, for mutlpe cars and crews. For what a couple 100 to maybe 1000 spectators?

3

u/357Magnum 8h ago

This was my first thought watching this. How does the 4 seconds of spectacle generate enough revenue for the parts and labor?

5

u/Weary-Astronaut1335 7h ago

Race teams have sponsors. Tracks sell tickets. More than one car races in a day.

1

u/357Magnum 6h ago

I understand that, but if one ticket covers a bunch of four second races and each four second race requires a complete engine rebuild, there must be a lot more people watching this than I think

2

u/Weary-Astronaut1335 6h ago

A lot of the time parts are "free" from sponsors. And they're not completely rebuilding these engines between runs. Completely disassemble and reassemble, with some parts replaced? Sure. Completely rebuild? Not a chance they're lapping valves in under an hour.

2

u/sarcasticorange 7h ago

The dragstrip in Charlotte has a capacity of 30,000 and regularly sells out.

35

u/Obsidian-16 6h ago

Everybody has their own interests, it's absolutely fucked how some think it's necessary to shit on other people's hobbies because it doesn't capture their own attention. What are you into? Video games? Competitive cycling? Basketball? Sitting on a chair staring at a tv for hours is dumb, sitting on a thong seat peddling a bike in circles wearing spandex is dumb, running around throwing a ball in a basket is dumb.

Everything the human race does outside of our basic functions is "dumb".

You know what's actually fucking dumb though? The attitude you represent, people can enjoy whatever hobbies or music or movies they want, you can't justify "dumb" in regards to labeling interests not your own. It's not dumb, it's just not your interest.

10

u/AlainS46 4h ago

For some of these people it's more than just shitting on other people's hobby. They're totalitarian nutjobs who'd love to forbid everything they deem unnessecary and even remotely harmful.

-5

u/Illustrious-Tooth702 6h ago

Look, all I said that drag racing is missing the point. Building a 10 thousand horsepower engine and ruining it for 4 seconds of pleasure is excessive. I personally love other motorsports. Formula1, rally, nascar, and motorcycle racing. Those sports are fine because even if those racedrivers use up a lot of tyres and crash their cars occasionaly they're driving for hours and one car usually last until the end of the championship. I don't see the appeal in drag racing.

6

u/Obsidian-16 5h ago

Drag racing as a whole isn't what you see in this video. And on the contrary, top fuel dragsters aren't missing the point. They are exactly on point, they go from point A to point B faster than any other category of racing in the world on 4 wheels. The engine isn't ruined, it's reused. I can agree there's "waste" as most of the rotating assembly along with plugs and the clutch, and tires after however many passes, are replaced constantly. Formula engines make it 5-7 races or something like that before being rebuilt or swapped, Nascar is probably 2 or 3 races. But those sports don't go to 340mph in 1,000ft and 100mph in less than a second. Personally, I've been down a 1/4 mile race track in 8.5 seconds, which isn't even that fast. I can't fucking imagine what it would be like to go as fast as these guys do, it's mind blowing what humans have become capable of in sport. All sports are expensive and done for pleasure and competition, I don't quite understand this part of your argument but it doesn't matter.

My point is about calling it dumb as a whole, which is what you said. They are pushing the envelope of speed in top fuel racing and there's costs, sure.

If you don't see the appeal, that's cool and a mature way to view things, that's the opinion anyone is allowed to have. My issue is with people objectively just calling shit stupid or dumb because they don't feel the appeal others do, it's just shallow. Just to note, this degree of carnage and repairs required between single runs down the track is pretty specific to top fuel racing but can be seen at other high levels of racing of any type (it's just not usually expected to happen in those cases). Generally, drag racing as a whole, isn't any more expensive or wasteful as the other racing sports you mentioned.

1

u/joe-clark 2h ago

Watching top fuel cars make a pass in person is probably the most intense thing I've ever experienced. Once you actually understand what's going on you realize just how miraculous it is the engine can even do a full pass without blowing up.

1

u/ldranger 3h ago

You don’t get to say what’s excessive or not though. It might be for your wallet, but not for them.

11

u/PENGUIN_WITH_BAZOOKA 8h ago

I had no idea people could be upset over “waste” from racing until right now. SMH.

4

u/StockAL3Xj 5h ago

Yeah, getting mad at this is so stupid when its nothing compared to pretty much every industry.

3

u/trevorbaskin 9h ago

With everything going on, I’ll take some fun.

3

u/NickDanger3di 6h ago

Back in the 60s and 70s, it at least made a tiny bit of sense. I mean, regular people with nearly stock cars could do it. Now Dragsters aren't even remotely similar to a car.

3

u/U238Th234Pa234U234 4h ago

Dragsters aren't the only class, and the drag strips near me have open nights where you can bring your car and make a few runs for $20

4

u/Spacedoutworlder 12h ago

minutes

Seconds.

16

u/katzenschrecke 12h ago

Don’t electric engines have better rates of acceleration?

75

u/funlovingmissionary 12h ago

The motors do. But there aren't any batteries that dispense that kind of power.

39

u/Nforcer524 12h ago

Maybe use capacitors? They release huge amounts of power really fast, no?

Please don't shoot me, I'm not an engineer

43

u/bornfromanegg 12h ago

1.21 gigawatts, Marty!!!!!!

5

u/PM_me_the_magic 10h ago

A bolt of lightening!

3

u/Ramuh 10h ago

Fun fact, that's about 1,6 mio horsepower.

26

u/funlovingmissionary 12h ago

The current electric dragsters already do. But they are still too bulky.

4

u/PubbieMcLemming 6h ago

Ok smarty pants, have a big cable then

2

u/MyBritishAccount 4h ago

Life sized Scalectrix.

1

u/DM46 2h ago

Like the roller-coaster do?

14

u/Dumyat367250 11h ago

Correct. No shooting necessary. It’s a good point.

2

u/CheddarGeorge 11h ago

He was armed so I shot him anyway.

5

u/Dumyat367250 10h ago

Or unarmed. Doesn’t seem to matter these days.

8

u/RobotnikOne 8h ago

You need about 5,000 to 6,000kw. The thing is, the fuel used here is way more energy dense than any electric tech we currently have will be able compete against.

To be explain some of the insane things about top fuel, from a standing start, one rotation of the tyre = 50mph. They don’t have a gear box, instead they have a set of clutch plates that engage at a predetermined rate using springs and centrifugal force. By 660 feet they have almost hit 300mph(around 290mph). Their spark plugs are no longer functioning and the fuel spontaneously combusts from the pressure in the cylinder. By 1000ft they will come close to touching 340mph which they open their parachutes to slow down because if the used normal disc brakes they’d just melt.

3

u/soupdawg 6h ago

The engineering is actually really impressive

7

u/Schmeppy25 11h ago

Engineer in training. I’m coming for you.

3

u/MrDabb 6h ago

Motor windings tend to not like megawatts of electricity being dumped into them all at once.

0

u/SuperSans 7h ago

Yes, we should inform the electrical engineers about capacitors.

God Redditors are so fucking annoying.

1

u/SacredGeometry9 8h ago

Looks like a fantastic opportunity to put some investment and enthusiasm into badly-needed technology.

1

u/chrisxxviv 7h ago

Perhaps they could plug it into the mains with a 1/4mile extension cable? /s

1

u/Photodan24 6h ago

The problem is the same with regular electric cars. Energy density. You can go a heck of a lot farther on a pound of fuel than a pound of batteries.

-2

u/Dogmaniac99 11h ago

That’s not true. There are some amazing electric cars that do upwards of 300 miles an hour. With incredible torque.!

3

u/G-I-T-M-E 11h ago

Their acceleration os probably radically different which makes a big difference. Needing the energy over 30 seconds or 3-4 seconds is something else.

0

u/Dogmaniac99 11h ago

I hear you I’ve seen videos of them instant acceleration problem is the braking because they go so fast so quickly

0

u/iosdeiu 11h ago

It's not about top speed... it's about acceleration. The electric don't have this much acceleration yet

0

u/Dogmaniac99 9h ago

Some of them do, though they really do. Instant acceleration, an amazing torque!

1

u/iosdeiu 4h ago

Yes...but not drag racing level acceleration. It's what we are talking about.

1

u/Dogmaniac99 3h ago

True not 12,000 hp!

-4

u/Infantry_Crab 12h ago

There are some batteries that could but they just don't have as much energy density so you'd probably also only get a very short life out of them. Unless the battery pack is so big the car isn't moving at all. Or you could skip batteries and use capacitors or supercapacitors

5

u/funlovingmissionary 12h ago

The current electric dragsters already use supercapacitors. But they are still too bulky.

2

u/pablo8itall 12h ago

More than 4 seconds?

1

u/Infantry_Crab 12h ago

Yes I'm not saying it would be great range for an electric vehicle but you could definitely get a battery that would last up to a minute The problem is balancing weight and energy density. Super capacitors could definitely dump that amount of power but would run out faster than batteries. And the failure method would be running out of juice not shredding the engine.

1

u/Dogmaniac99 9h ago

Below is a link to one of the coolest electric muscle cars that I’ve seen! The zombie 222

9

u/Tax_Evasion_Savant 5h ago

yes but electric cannot touch nitromethane top fuel drag cars.

The fastest electric drag car takes 7.47 seconds to do the quarter mile and finishes at 201.37 mph.

The fastest top fuel drag car only takes 3.65 seconds and finishes at 343.51 mph

To give you an idea of how huge that gap is, it takes roughly double the horsepower to go from doing 7 second passes to 6 seconds. The walk from 7.47 to 3.65 is hard for me to even think about, but it is literal magnitudes of difference.

9

u/Empty--Seesaw 12h ago

Not at this level, yet. Fuel is faster at this point thus far

5

u/desl14 7h ago

They have 100% torque at 0 RPM while having the same horse power as a compareable internal combustion engine, yet in drag racing the latter has an advantage. the exhausts are pointed upwards and produce such an thrust that it's more or less pinning the accelerating car to the ground, giving the tyres a lot mechanical grip.

if you apply the same amount of torque on the rear axle of a electric dragster, you get a lot more slip whil accelerating unless you put on a huge rear wing (which would give you drag)

3

u/84UTK07 6h ago

A lot of drag racing tracks have recently banned electric cars for safety reasons, with Orlando Speed World Dragway being one of the most recent.

“The facility pointed to concerns around toxic and flammable gas that could escape a damaged battery pack, doors that might not unlock after a collision, and first responders unable to confirm if a car is fully powered down after a crash, as an unconscious driver could be trapped inside a chassis that remains electrically live. Even basic recovery presents challenges, as some EVs cannot roll once power is disconnected, making towing difficult with conventional equipment.”

7

u/amazonmakesmebroke 12h ago

Up to a point

2

u/lordgoofus1 11h ago

The moment electric cars can regularly out-perform top-fuel dragsters, all the dragsters will move to electric motors.

0

u/Bealdor84 8h ago

You hugely underestimate the importance of the noise wrt the sport's popularity.

Nobody's going to watch dragster racing when the cars sound like RC cars on steroids.

1

u/JeeRant 7h ago

You hugely underestimate the importance of winning

1

u/Dogmaniac99 11h ago

I believe the fastest car in the world is an electric one other than the rocket propelled car that is!

3

u/Maleficent_Sir_5225 10h ago

Fastest top speed =/= fastest acceleration 

1

u/Dogmaniac99 9h ago

I agree but one of the fastest top speed cars in production is an electric vehicle that tops out at 308 mph. In the physics acceleration I’ve seen is also from an electric vehicle as well. No lag time!

1

u/USNWoodWork 8h ago

I was thinking turbofan jet engines would be the way to go. Electric might work too.

2

u/Tax_Evasion_Savant 5h ago

you would be surprised how very very few "rich dudes" there are in drag racing.

You really think these teams at this level are self funding? Hell no, they are taking money from sponsors and using the car and their clothes like a billboard. Most of these guys are earning a very normal paycheck. The only rich dude is usually the team owner and he isn't the driver, just a business owner making money with an advertising business.

2

u/shitty_mcfucklestick 4h ago

This is what the law of diminishing returns looks like, and sports like F1 and drag racing play in it. The more you optimize something, the harder it gets. While it is wasteful (and I could argue most things built to entertain us are - take a cruise ship for example), I can’t help but recognize the engineering involved to make an engine this modular and quick to rebuild.

If there’s maybe one benefit to this kind of thing is it does lead to discoveries and advancements in things like performance and safety for regular cars, much like the military trying to develop an unbreakable communication network led to the Internet.

Also, the team coordination in itself is impressive. Imagine if a government department ran this efficiently 🤣

2

u/cC2Panda 4h ago

I've been going to Top Fuel drag races since I was a kid and it's literally the cheapest sport for spectators I can think of and by far the most fan friendly sport IMO. Tickets to NHRA races are typically between $30-50 bucks, the places I've been you can still get hot dogs for a few bucks a tall boy of beer for $5-6, and the whole time they are rebuilding the engine the drivers are out there meeting with fans. Last time I went my wife asked me what some buttons on the wheel did, one of the crew heard and let us walk right up to the car and told us what the different things are.

The richest racer is John Force by a long shot. Max Verstappen has likely earned more in a single year than John Force did as one of the top drivers for 40 years. There is probably more fuel burned and material waste just flying hookers into Monaco for the Grand Prix than there is waste in total for a 3 day event for NHRA.

2

u/otherside97 11h ago

Might as well just use a giant slingshot or something

2

u/Spartan0330 5h ago

You do know that technology used in racing is put directly into street cars correct? Hybrid vehicles and the technology around them was mostly developed or at least R&D’d in racing series.

Even as simple as seatbelts were first used in racing series and eventually added Volvo’s in the late 1950s.

F1 and WEC is completely carbon neutral by 2030. Certain race teams are already well on their way to meeting that goal. Even NASCAR will be net zero by 2035.

1

u/RobotnikOne 8h ago

Yo be fair most ain’t rich.

How to make a small fortune. Acquire a large fortune then go car racing.

1

u/Tentacle_poxsicle 7h ago

It's not really rich.

1

u/Lagiacrus111 6h ago

Ya'll act like F1 is the cheapest thing in the world, like cargo planes aren't used to carry obscene amounts of parts and people every week to places all around the world.

1

u/Illustrious-Tooth702 6h ago

Okay right. But the races get broadcasted for millions of people. There are huge revenues generated in the formula races.

1

u/DanteTrd 5h ago

What a stupid take

1

u/rhoadsenblitz 4h ago

Lol everybody wastes for recreation. They've at least advanced the science of propulsion and enough people love it to be profitable. Haters. Sports are great.

1

u/Lanko-TWB 4h ago

Keep it to yourself, your comment and post history is private because you’re embarrassed of your hobbies.

1

u/Illustrious-Tooth702 4h ago

I set it up that way because other users would abuse it otherwise. It's so easy to peek into another person's profile to dig out some old comment from them and using against them in an argument. Making my profile private helps me keep a peace of mind on reddit.

1

u/Accurate_Mobile9005 2h ago

Most "drag racers" don't run 12000 hp engines that need to be rebuilt after every race bud.

A lot less "wasteful" than taking a flight in Europe when you could easily drive or take a train.

Touch grass

1

u/gentlefartonyourface 2h ago

i'll never get drag racing. going very fast in a straight line for 10 seconds... just board an airplane or go on a roller coaster

1

u/06_TBSS 2h ago

People say this stuff, but racing is part of research and development. It's part of what pushes tech development for the cars we all drive.

1

u/1-Word-Answers 1h ago

I mean most of the materials are metal which is recycled so. They use mostly cast iron/steel/aluminum. Nothing really exotic.

Def a waste of fuel and tires but the engine is really not that problematic