Record breaking Funny Cars
The Castrol-lubricated John Force Racing entry – clad in a carbon-fibre body that loosely resembles a standard production Ford Mustang – is one of the most advanced machines in the Funny Car class. Although the Funny Cars look more conventional than the stretched-nose Top Fuel cars that are synonymous with the sport of drag racing, their performance levels are actually easily comparable.
Hemi Power
The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) has laid out strict guidelines governing the type of engines that can be used in the Funny Car class. Amongst the many regulations, some basic rules can be used as a yardstick. Each engine has to be a V8, displacement cannot exceed 500 cubic inches (8.2 litres), there can be only two valves per cylinder, while the supercharger is restricted to the ‘root’ type.
The performance figures surrounding the engine are incredible. Each Funny Car produces approximately 7000 horsepower (the equivalent of 37 times the average family-size car), with each single cylinder in the engine producing around 875 horsepower – more than a modern Formula 1 car.
The key to much of the performance of the Funny Cars is their life fluid – the fuel. Drag racers run on a potent mix of nitromethane (costing $16 per gallon), force fed at incredibly high pressures. A Funny Car fuel pump delivers 65 gallons of fuel per minute (over a gallon every second), equal to eight bathroom showers running at the same time, while the fuel line pressure runs between 400 and 500 pounds, which is 20 times greater than the pressure on a passenger car fuel pump.
During a single run – which includes the starting, burnout, backing up, staging and the qaurter-mile race itself – Funny Cars can burn 57 liters of fuel (15 U.S gallons), giving the drag racers a per mile consumption of between 16 and 20 gallons.
Bringing this awesome power to a halt at the end of the run requires some hefty stats of its own. The aluminium and magnesium rear spoiler on a Funny Cars not allowed to be more than 54 inches wide and more than five inches above the roofline, and must be mounted on, not built into, the body. Despite this, it is still capable of producing 5000 pounds of downforce on the rear tyres.
At the end of a run, a Funny Car uses a combination of devices to slow down. The carbon fibre disk brakes on all four corners of the car are operated via a hand lever in the cockpit, but they’re only the secondary method of slowing the Funny Car from 330mph. Two custom-designed, high-tech parachutes deployed from the rear produce up to seven negative G force in stopping power, managing to throw even the most tightly strapped-in drivers a few inches forward.
No wonder the two drivers who take the wheel of the Castrol-liveried Funny Cars – team boss John Force and daughter Ashley Force – describe it as the ultimate thrill-ride!
back to top
