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Top Fuel Dragster Team

SSGTCA

Aluminum
Joined
Feb 17, 2004
Location
New Jersey
I was at the NHRA Keystone Nationals yesterday and noticed in the back of one of the Kalitta semis (used to transport one of their 3 Top Fuel Dragsters)a made-in-Taiwan lathe and bench mill. This team has 3 drivers who are number 2, 4, and 5 in the national points standings and have no shortage of cash (they are sponsored by Mac Tools and West Coast Choppers, among others).

I assume that they are not machining exotic parts with these pieces, but they did appear to be getting a decent amount of use. I am very satisfied with my Heavy 10 and Bridgeport, but it does make me wonder if indeed a lathe and mill are only as good as the way they are set-up and used.

Any thoughts?
 
Well, theres import and then theres import- but a decent import lathe or mill, properly set up, will do just fine for maintanence machining, like they are probably doing at the track. Anything really trick, they probably do at home with cnc, or send out. The other thing is that some of the import stuff will work fine when new, but doesnt last as long as the old american iron- but for something like a lathe in the back of a truck, they are not worried about how it will perform 20 years down the road- its a deductible expense, and they will sell it and buy a new one every few years without blinking. The annual budget to run a team like that is so big that 20k for new mill and lathe every 2 or 3 years would dissappear into the background noise.

On an oddly related note, I recently saw an article about Adnan Kashoggi, the big arms dealer of the 70's and 80's, and his custom love shack of a private 727- complete with a suede bedspread on his xtra large round bed, coffee tables with video screens showing the earth below, computerised mood lighting, and rug up the walls- it looked like something out of a james bond movie- and guess who owns it now?
Connie Kallita!
 
In the 70's I worked on a Top Fuel Dragster. We didn't even have air tools then, but other teams did. Just 2 of us and the driver. We could change 8 pistons in 45 minutes. It was made to be worked on.
 
I haven't been there on race day, but Rutger's University race team has one of those cheap import machines in the back of our trailer too. They say on race day there is a line out the door of the other teams each trying to make a little washer, or something that broke. I guess along with the welder it has saved their A$$ a few times. There, like some one else said, longevity of something only called into action 4 days a year, and only making emergency repairs isn't too big of a concern. By the way those Top Fuel Dragsters are pretty neat. I've heard that they ofset the Cranks, 30degrees, so that when they are accelerating at full throttle the torque in the shaft actually bends that crank, 30 degrees back into position. They are really quite a feat of modern engineering and manufacturing.

Adam
 
I remember in the late 50's, a car magazine had a lengthy article explaining why it was impossible to exceed 160mph in the quarter!
 
I'm sure Ralph already knows this since he's from East Tennessee, but the sound of a nitro burning Hemi at Bristol Dragway, sitting between 2 mountains, is a sound unlike anything else you'll ever hear in any kind of racing. Loud just ain't the word for it :D
 
It aint the equipment, it's the people who use it that get the work done. I've made elaborate close tolerance parts on machine tools that were condemned and taken up only weeks later and generations of my fellow craftsmen have done the same to one dgree or another.
 
metlmunchr, everyone needs to experience that at least once. They would never forget it. Even more exciting was to get to sit in the T/F car and rap the eng. during warm-up after a teardown. The sound waves will vibrate your whole body.

I took a friend to Bristol once, he talked a big race but I don't think he had actually saw one. I told him before hand that I would give him a $100. bill if he would touch the eng. on any fuel burner while it was just idleing in the pits. You could'nt get him within 100 ft. of one.
 
Noise and fire------

Famoso Raceway, few miles north of Bakersfield on old Hwy 99, October 2-------NHRA's 13th Old Timers Reunion, under the lights--www.famosoraceway.com

They were expecting around 30 but 37 made the Saturday night 'Cackelfest', yep, 37 front engined nitro burning cars, side by side, all running. They thought the boys were crying from nitro fumes, but they said they were just 'remembering how things used to be.'

JMcD
 
When I was 16 years old or so me and my bud's used to sneak into Puyallup raceways (for free, just crawl through a skimpy barbed wire fence)and watch the nitro fueled dragsters give it a go. It was so loosely organized that we could actually stand 30 feet behind a Top-Fuel dragster and watch the fireworks as it first did a bleach burn-out and then a timed run. For non-competition runs a guy would just flag the dragster away. We stuffed our fingers in our ears and closed our eyes and hunkered down, the nitro fumes were very acrid and stung our eyes, nose, and lungs. Little bits of hot rubber pelted our face as the machine left with zoomies belching trails of flame and the sound reverberated off the valley walls with an awesome echo.

Oh the good ol' days. It was a time alright.

Randy
 
Top fuel dragsters have been a passion of mine since I was a teenager. I remember going to a match race at Continental Divide Raceway near Castle Rock Colorado. It was a best of three match between Don Garlits and Don Prudhomme. Being a fanatic I of course bought a pit pass and spent all day as close as I could to the two legends. As the start of the first race approached the two Kings of the sport met in the pits to flip a coin for lane choice. They asked for a coin and, being right on their heels, I quickly came up with the only coin I had, a nickel. I can't remember which of them took the coin from me or who won the coin toss, but I cherished the coin for years afterward. I always meant to drill a hole in it so I wouldn't lose it, but never did, and of course when I moved from home, I did lose track of it. Some great memories though, that I will never forget.
 








 
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