Summat I read recently is that top fuel dragsters use magento ignition, & I quote "The air fuel ratio in nitro cars is less than 1.7:1. The mixture is nearly solid liquid by the time the piston is at TDC of the compression stroke. Without that level of ignition, you run a high risk of hydraulic conditions in a cylinder. We count on the ignition to begin the combustion process so the piston can pass TDC without becoming stuck in a hydraulic state. The magnetos are both 44 amps, much like the power of an arc welder. It’s takes that much power to burn that much fuel. The ground straps on the spark plugs are often burned to nubs at the end of the run. It’s rather incredible."
My favourite is that if a top fuel dragster is waiting at the start line and only begins it's run at the moment you drive across the (start) line at a steady 100 mph then it would still beat you to the end of the quarter.
no ^ it will come as a shock to a few that Lancia outsold Alfa in Germany around 5 years ago. To Stellantis, it's just like a Casino/roulette game, and looks like they might be about to hedge their bets soon. Weighing up losses/benefits is so difficult that even the differing legislation/type approval costs let alone "tooling" are enough to halt a model release in a RHD country.
Definitely one of the most weird looking cars you'll see, this is the 1967 OSI Silver Fox and this was built specifically to compete in the Le Mans 24 hour race. It managed to achieve a top speed of 155mph using just a 1000cc Renault Alpine four cylinder engine.-It had excellent aerodynamics. The Silver Fox has been described as a wing with wheels: it had three adjustable spoilers between each 'halve' and these could be tweaked for use on a particular circuit. The engine sat in one half to counter the weight of the driver.
