8,000 HP, 4.5 Secs, 330 MPH Top Fuel Dragster Driver Interview.

[SkyvanDelta]

Interesting video interview of a top fuel dragster driver.

Postive 5.5 g's on blastoff and Negative 6 g's with chutes deployed all in 4.5 seconds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4g13gyZqkQ&feature=related

Anyone know of any videos where a Unlimited Reno Pilot discusses what it's like to run the course at Reno?

[First time Juke]

Re: 8,000 HP, 4.5 Secs, 330 MPH Top Fuel Dragster Driver Interview.

6 G:s is a lot in a car.

I remember reading Bill Weaver USAF( or NASA ) testpilot had a major structural brakedown at mach 2.9 speed. He survived it. I wonder what loads were affecting him after the brake down.

Another US colonel who run the tests put himself into -40 G testbed. Survived with broken eye veins etc.

But all this tops a story I read that a most human has survived is 179 negative G:s. ( must have been the type who jumbed an aeroplane and chute did not open. I recall he landed on a lawn somehere with several hundred bones broken )

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: 8,000 HP, 4.5 Secs, 330 MPH Top Fuel Dragster Driver Interview.

We have not gotten into video yet much here... though we may... here's a classic, though, audio, with Tiger... he really steals the show..

http://aafo.com/gallery/history/tiger/

Requires real player.. at the time, it really was the best compression, versus quality, given the data rates at that time.. I'm sure, there are still some folks with dialups.. but the ratio is leaning far to high speed...

Cool conversatioin!

More of this sort of thing coming!

Wayne Sagar

[ShermB]

Re: 8,000 HP, 4.5 Secs, 330 MPH Top Fuel Dragster Driver Interview.

Thanks, Wayne for the walk down Memory Lane. Really warms up a cold day. Merry Christmas to you and Beer Nazi.
Betty

[Randy Haskin]

Re: 8,000 HP, 4.5 Secs, 330 MPH Top Fuel Dragster Driver Interview.

Interesting video interview of a top fuel dragster driver.

Postive 5.5 g's on blastoff and Negative 6 g's with chutes deployed all in 4.5 seconds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4g13gyZqkQ&feature=related

Anyone know of any videos where a Unlimited Reno Pilot discusses what it's like to run the course at Reno?

FWIW, Gs experienced in the fore-aft (Y) axis feel very different than those in the up-down (Z) axis.

[SkyvanDelta]

Re: 8,000 HP, 4.5 Secs, 330 MPH Top Fuel Dragster Driver Interview.

I remember reading about Craig Breedlove, the man who built and drove jet powered land speed record cars. Craig was the first person to drive over 400, 500 and 600mph in the 60's.

He said that when he pulled the parachutes, the de-accelleration would confuse his brain and make him feel like he was driving down the face of a building.

Imagine what it's like to be driving 600-700mph, knowing you have a short period of time to slow down or you are going to run out of flat surfaces, and feeling like you are driving down the face of a building.

That has got to be a unique but scary feeling. I would assume the drag racers must experience the same when they deploy the parachutes to slow them down from 300 mph plus.

[AirDOGGe]

Re: 8,000 HP, 4.5 Secs, 330 MPH Top Fuel Dragster Driver Interview.

But all this tops a story I read that a most human has survived is 179 negative G:s. ( must have been the type who jumbed an aeroplane and chute did not open. I recall he landed on a lawn somehere with several hundred bones broken )

Surviving that level of force sounded unbelievable, as even an instant of 100 G's is suppose to be fatal, so I researched it and found it to be true after all, except it was a car crash he survived:

In the winter of 1976-77 (David) Purley commissioned designer Mike Pilbeam to build a Lec F1 car and with the help of Mike Earle this was ready to race in 1977. Purley qualified for several races but in practice at Silverstone suffered a stuck throttle and crashed with incredible violence.

Purley was subjected to the highest G-forces ever survived by a human being - 179.8G - when the car went from 108mph to zero in just over half a meter.

His life was saved by rescue crews at the scene of the crash but it took many months for him to recover from multiple fractures to his legs, pelvis and ribs.

[SkyvanDelta]

Re: 8,000 HP, 4.5 Secs, 330 MPH Top Fuel Dragster Driver Interview.

Is there a video of this accident online?

That must be painful to have all the broken bones, bruises, sprains, strains...that came from the accident.

[Race5]

Re: 8,000 HP, 4.5 Secs, 330 MPH Top Fuel Dragster Driver Interview.

Is there a video of this accident online?

That must be painful to have all the broken bones, bruises, sprains, strains...that came from the accident.

I have never seen footage anywhere of that accident. Purley is more widely known for his effort to save a fellow F1 driver, Roger Williamson when track crews were horribly slow to respond. Sadly Purley was killed in the mid 80s while flying aerobatics.

[SkyvanDelta]

Re: 8,000 HP, 4.5 Secs, 330 MPH Top Fuel Dragster Driver Interview.

I remember seeing that video of him trying to save the other driver as the car is upside down, in flames with the driver trapped.

Here is one version of the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho5-6taeWRQ&NR=1

[hm66sk]

Re: 8,000 HP, 4.5 Secs, 330 MPH Top Fuel Dragster Driver Interview.

What about the rocket sled tests where they would decelerate by running the sled into a pool of water? What kind of G's did they experience?

[Apteryx]

Re: 8,000 HP, 4.5 Secs, 330 MPH Top Fuel Dragster Driver Interview.

What about the rocket sled tests where they would decelerate by running the sled into a pool of water? What kind of G's did they experience?

I remember one story, where the subject had some visual damage from some sort of abnormal stop, quoted it at 64G's.