You can walk around the pits at the Santa Pod Raceway. The cars are all under awnings, the engineers fully equipped. There is a big team, possibly 7 or 8 people working on a car. The Pro cars are usually the best equipped. They often have big oil companies sponsoring them.
You can watch engineers working as you go around. This man had a look of pure joy on his face as he worked on the over-head rocker assembly of this Pro-Top Fuel dragster - the fastest class. Obviously engineering Nirvana!
This class of car can accelerate from 0 to 100mph in one second! They burn Nitro Methane and achieve speeds of over or around 300mph after a quarter mile run.
The fuels can inflict severe damage on the engine. Often they have to be virtually rebuilt. Between runs there is a minimum time of 75 minutes before the car has to race again. They have to work pretty fast.
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Let me just say one thing here...that engine is Freaking HUGE!!! Holy cow! Good to do what you love, and he obviously is. Very nice capture of this rather large engine, and the work that gets put into it.
@aj1268 Well, yeah. And we are only looking at four cylinder out of eight... The engine size limit is at NHRA is 500 cubic inch (8194 cc) which is slightly double than the Oldsmobile Aurora to give a perspective. :-)
great picture :)