Eleven thousand horsepower. Let that sink in for a moment: 11,000. But that’s just an approximate calculation for this NHRA Top Fuel monster. It could be more, but there’s no dynamometer on earth that can measure the gut-wrenching, ear-splitting, asphalt-shredding power of a top fuel dragster engine.
These engines are constantly pulled apart and put back together to assure optimal performance on the drag strip. Most teams can completely disassemble and reassemble the engines in less than an hour. But who has an hour to watch an engine rebuild?
We sent Hagerty’s Davin Reckow and the video crew down to Don Schumacher Racing in Brownsburg, Indiana, to give Tony Schumacher’s U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster engine the time-lapse video treatment. The result? Take a quick look and see for yourself.