Race Day!
Even though whoever gets to the finish line first is crowned the victor of an NHRA drag race, that doesn't mean the winning car is necessarily the fastest. If a car is the first off the line, that's a huge advantage in a race that only covers a short distance. Even if another car has a faster top speed, it might not be able to make up the lost ground to take the win.
Top Fuel cars take off from the starting line and reach a speed of 100 miles per hour (160.9 kilometers per hour) in less than a second. This makes them the fastest accelerating cars in the world. A Top Fuel engine's power reaches the wheels in a fraction of a second. Top Fuel drivers endure G-forces similar to astronauts during a space shuttle launch. And almost just as quickly, they need to stop. Since these cars would wear through brakes pretty quickly at more than 300 miles per hour (482.8 kilometers per hour), Top Fuel dragsters are equipped with a special type of primary braking system. After crossing the finish line, the driver hits a switch that deploys two parachutes behind the car, and the intense wind resistance slows the car, minimizing the risk of mechanical failure.
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Funny Cars, another class of drag racing vehicle, use the same kind of engines as Top Fuel cars, but there are plenty of differences. In Top Fuel cars, the engine is situated behind the driver, but Funny Cars put the engine up front. The different wheelbase of Funny Cars may account for some of the differences in speed and acceleration since the huge amount of power going to the rear wheels can cause a lot of extra movement as the cars zip down the strip.
Funny Cars use the wheelbase of a production car from the model year 2000 or later, and then a fiberglass replica of the body is constructed to reduce weight. The rules for using production cars offer a lot of leeway. Racers can use sports cars, coupes, or sedans from any domestic or import auto manufacturer, as long as the car was originally mass produced. In other words, race teams can't modify concept cars, show cars or hand-built boutique cars. To be eligible under the NHRA's rules, the car must have been built on a factory assembly line.
Top Fuel drag cars and Funny Cars have similar performance specs, thanks to the related mechanical components. Over the 1,000-foot (304.8-meter) straightaway, both types of dragsters reach speeds above 300 miles per hour (482.8 kilometers per hour) and complete the distance in three to four seconds, burning about 1.2 gallons (4.54 liters) of nitromethane blend per second, and about 17 gallons (64.35 liters) per race [source: Mazlumian]. Another way to get a sense of these cars' capabilities is to look at the records. As of 2022, the record for fastest Top Fuel car in the series was 338.94 miles per hour (545.47 kilometers per hour), held by Brittany Force, and for the Funny Car, the top-speed recorded is Robert Hight's 339.87 miles per hour (546.97 kilometers per hour). Brittany Force completed a Top Fuel run in just 3.641 seconds, and Robert Hight's Funny Car record is 3.793 seconds.