How Fast Could Cars Theoretically Accelerate?

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What If F1 ENGINES Had No Rules?

What If Formula 1 Had No Rules?

How This Car Does 0-100 in 0.9 Sec

The Porsche Faster Than F1

0-1000 mph in 22 Seconds

This is the fastest-accelerating car ever recorded. It went from zero to 402 miles per hour in just 3.22 seconds over a quarter mile.

Incredible, right? But it got me thinking: If there were no rules, how fast could a race car, dragster, or anything with an engine, wheels, and a driver theoretically accelerate?

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#Engineering #Acceleration #Dragster

[재준이]

A 2.7 quarter mile time would mean that the driver has to pull at least 11g

[dj_laundry_list]

8:36 Actually, the top fuel dragsters get some downforce from their exhaust, which is significant off the line

[iQKyyRK]

You want to fuel a car with Hydrazine?
Chemists that grew up after the 60s just had a stroke.

[nicksmacro]

Hydrazine! - good golly. You could kill the entire grandstand in one pass.

[Artiick]

How's Project Inversion going? Is the ball still rolling on it?

[Whyyyyyy]

The trick to using hydrazine as a fuel is the added weight of the space suit for the driver.

[cheetocatto]

Monopropellant dragster... sounds like straight out of Kerbal Space Program.

[NielsHeusinkveld]

Dragsters are rear wheel drive, but also designed so under full acceleration, the front tires are barely even touching the ground. So 95% of the weight is on the driven wheels already during a run.

[Scoots]

The change to exotic materials does lower mass but it also dramatically changes the dynamics of the entire car, and when it comes to Top Fuel dragsters the mass of the frame and the very tuned way it flexes is specifically part of the process of getting the tires to grip the track. I think you would have to lengthen the chassis to get some of that back. And the tires struggle mightily to hold the 11000 hp now, doubt they can hold twice the power.

[comptck]

Nitro cars use aluminum rods and actually shorten during a run from the high cylinder pressures. They act somewhat as a shock absorber compared to steel or Ti rods.

[AntonHoward-mxsb]

I saw Sammy Miller when he took the record at Santa pod, I was 11.
I've spent the last 41 years as a Toolmaker and development engineer because of people like Sammy Miller & Angus McPhail on Jade Warrior.
As I understand it, the conrods in nitro burning engines are forged aluminium alloy. The reason being that the percussive force of the nitro exploding can shatter steel or titanium. Another piece of nerdery is that the rod length shortens after each run as the rods compress under the force.

[bacon.cheesecake]

"0-60 acceleration tests have been the go-to statistic for drivers all over the world"
Correction: "0-60 acceleration tests have been the go-to statistic for drivers in about 5% of the world"

[jaredboeh]

Top fuel dragster doesn't have a transmission, they use a centrifugal clutch, and direct drive and a the reverse gear is in the rear end.

[jsh]

The biggest reason exotic, lightweight materials are not used in Top Fuel or Funny Car racing classes is the fact that those engines produce anywhere from 11000 to 18000 horsepower, and lord knows what the torque output is. That much power would rip apart carbon fiber like so much wet paper. The chassis would explode on the starting line well before 10% of the maximum power is produced. The mandated chrome-molybdenum steel tubing chassis is strong enough and flexible enough to take the power that is output, but still requires frequent inspection of the welds in the chassis.

[johnnyboy]

Pretty sure top fuel dragsters in current form are running regularly under 4 seconds for quarter mile runs, so unless I misheard, I don't think your quote on the fastest top fuel quarter mile drag run of 4.4 seconds is correct. So, the theoretical speed you originally calculated of 3.8 seconds is actually spot on and quite common. Brittany Force has recorded a 3.665 run of 338mph as the fastest ever.

[jedswift]

Other than a few force/mass unit confusions, Driver61 certainly covered the bases if we restrict ourselves to a rubber tire-based force transfer concept. The only other thing to note is that the thrust force for a rubber tire is limited by the shear strength of the rubber itself. How about using a captive rack and pinion that runs the 1, 320 feet? Steel has a lot higher shear strength than rubber.
If we go completely "no rules" the limitation comes down to how much acceleration can a human stand. Does the human have to be able to control the vehicle? Does the human have to be in the vehicle?
Col. John Stapp, strapped into a rocket sled in 1946 through 1951 survived up to 42.6 gs. Assuming that could be maintained over the ¼ mile the time would be 1.38 seconds crossing the line at just under 1, 300 MPH. The human would not be capable of operating the vehicle during this, likely being unconscious, with broken bones, bleeding retinas etc. Col. Stapp was temporarily blinded by this; his friends have noted that he was changed by the experience.
The fastest accelerating machine I am aware of short of an artillery shell is the Sprint short range AMB. Capable of 100 g acceleration. Lay it on its side (wheels or no), start it up and it will pass the ¼ mile point 0.9 seconds later passing 1, 980 MPH, coming up on Mach 3. This assumes that aero drag would roughly cancel the decreasing mass as propellant was expended.
I would not want to be in the stands, or within a mile. 20 if downrange, unless in a bunker.

[DoggyDinnerTime]

Why not strap a large solid fuel rocket calculated to burn for 1.5 seconds on the chassis? It solves traction, power en weight at once.

[Barry.ONeill]

I used to think Drag racing was too expensive for the amount of track/seat time but watching Cleetus Mc Farland videos has made me really respect it and how fast they can go in drag cars on good prep, but they don't do much of it in Ireland 🇮🇪

[feynthefallen]

Hypergolic fuels in a piston engine?! That HAS to be right on top of the worst possible ideas in propulsion technology... Also, top fuel dragsters are running their tires at the very limit of their grip. If you doubled the power and halved the weight, where would you get the grip from to transfer said power it into the ground? Thinking about how grip works, there has to be a maximum balancing between grip to transfer the power and rolling resistance. The optimum for force transfer would be to concrete the tires to the ground. The optimum for rolling resistance would be tires covered in soap or oil or better yet, not even touching the ground. Increasing one necessarily takes the other away from it's optimum.

[notmilandia]

I believe current top fuel dragsters are traction limited about 2/3 of the run.