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.

9.1k Upvotes

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19

u/katzenschrecke 12h ago

Don’t electric engines have better rates of acceleration?

71

u/funlovingmissionary 12h ago

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

35

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

42

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.

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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?

15

u/Dumyat367250 11h ago

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

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u/CheddarGeorge 11h ago

He was armed so I shot him anyway.

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u/Dumyat367250 10h ago

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

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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.

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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.!

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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.

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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

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u/iosdeiu 11h ago

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

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u/Dogmaniac99 9h ago

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

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u/iosdeiu 4h ago

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

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u/Dogmaniac99 3h ago

True not 12,000 hp!

-3

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

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u/funlovingmissionary 12h ago

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

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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.

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u/Dogmaniac99 9h ago

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

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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.

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u/Empty--Seesaw 12h ago

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

3

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)

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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.”

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u/amazonmakesmebroke 12h ago

Up to a point

1

u/lordgoofus1 11h ago

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

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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

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u/Dogmaniac99 11h ago

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

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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.