The Miller Jet Dragster was custom designed by Larsen Motorsports and fabricated by Worthy Motorsports, Palmetto, Fla. in Feb. 2009. Using Miller Syncrowave® 180 and 250 TIG machines, every component was fabricated to strict engineering standards in order for the vehicle to endure the extreme G-forces applied during acceleration and deceleration.
The Miller Jet Dragster has two 15-gallon fuel tanks for a 30-gallon combined capacity. Each 1/4-mile run consumes 23 to 25 gallons. The tank never empties, which keeps the fuel pump seals from running dry.
Miller’s Jet Dragster uses biofuel, which is partially refined from algae, corn and soybeans. The formula is a biofuel, Jet-A blend for optimum performance. Cost per gallon is approximately $3 to $5
The rear tires of a jet dragster are not traditional to drag racing because they don’t transfer power to the pavement through traction like a regular wheel-driven car. Land-speed tires are used instead. Because jet dragsters are thrust driven, the tires essentially function like the wheels on roller-skates as the vehicle darts down the strip. One set of tires typically last a whole season.
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Front – Goodyear Top Fuel dragster design
- Size: 22-in.Tall x 4-in. Wide
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Rear – Goodyear custom design for land speed record racing
- Size: 28-in. Tall x 10-in. Wide
Roughly 70 percent of the exhaust from the primary engine contains useable oxygen. The afterburner assembly is designed to re-introduce more fuel to the exhaust stream, igniting it to provide an additional 80- to 100-percent more HP in addition to the standard output of the engine. The military utilizes afterburners on engines slightly different than is desired for drag racing, which requires full power at the starting line. The engineering team at Larsen Motorsports modified the design to reach speeds of zero to 100 mph in 1.3 seconds.
Due to this “full-throttle” configuration, the 316L stainless steel afterburner glows cherry red from the exhaust heat and white-hot flame. Surface temperatures after a typical run reach 2,200 to 2,400 degrees Fahrenheit. During a night run, the afterburner is so hot you can actually see right through the 16-gauge metal!
Exotic metals such as Inconel make up some of the internal components that feel the full force of the engine’s heat.
Bonus: Why is this important?
Drag racing engineers are always striving to tweak the weight-to-power ratio to achieve the maximum speed. The more power and less weight, the faster the speed. Weather, on the other hand, can work against lighter bodied cars. For safety considerations, crosswinds gusting in excess of 15 mph will typically force a jet dragster to perform a shorter run (1/8-mile vs. 1/4-mile.)
- NASCAR – 3,400 lbs.
- Indy – 2,000 – 2,500 lbs.
- Top Fuel dragster 2,200 – 2,300 lbs.
- Jet Dragster – 1,140 lbs.
The Miller Jet Dragster covers 1/8 mile per second, roughly 660 ft., which makes stopping a priority. Jet cars do not use traditional brakes to stop; parachutes are the primary method of deceleration.
The driver has less than a second after crossing the finish line to deploy the chutes and less than 1/2 a second to notice if there is an issue requiring the reserve chute to be deployed. Elaine, along with other seasoned racers, have described an elevated sense of time with regards to their reaction speed when traveling at close to 300 mph. They feel almost as if time slows down.
Welded to the strongest part of the frame, the two custom racing chutes are designed to pull evenly and withstand nearly -7Gs as the car comes to a stop, which can take a few thousand feet.
Even though the car has 4-wheel disc brakes, they are only used to provide traction at the starting line, holding back the power from the primary engine right before takeoff.
Surprisingly, a jet car endures more damage from being towed from race to race than it experiences from a five-second run down the track. One trip down a rough road is like thousands of passes on the chassis down a racetrack.
On a typical weekend, a jet car will make four runs down the track. That’s 20 seconds that the car is actually moving under its’ own power. The rest of the time, it’s riding along and being moved in and out of the trailer.
The General Electric J-85 engine in the Miller Jet Dragster pulls 44 cubic feet of air through the engine every second.
Why We Built The Dragster ?
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