DRAGSTER

2600cc Eight Cylinders / Dany Dieudonné - 1991

Queen of France

Though drag racing has never reached the heights of popularity in Europe that it has in the United States, nevertheless it is one of the most spectacular sports, in which the search for power is pursued to the absolute limits.

Explosive Action

There are several categories of dragster, from stock-class machines to the Top Fuel dragsters. Their power units are often a hot-rodder's cocktail of two or even three interlinked engines, force-fed by a supercharger and running on the explosive fuel nitromethane. Every component is hand-finished to withstand the ultimate strain, but even so, it's not unknown for an engine to burst before the dragster passes under the timing gate that straddles the end of the strip.

Violent Acceleration

Drag races are run off in one-against-one elin1inators. As they wait on the line the riders "burn-out" their fat rear tires by spinning the wheel on the spot, warming the tires to increase the traction available. Then the lights on the starting pole blink red-yellow-green and the two competing machines explode into violent action in an acrid cloud of nitromethane fumes: less than ten seconds later it's all over. In this violent sport, a young Frenchwoman named Dany Dieudonné has become a front-runner, taking the French 200-meter record with a time of 5.4 seconds (and an exit speed of almost 142 mph) and covering the standing quarter in 7.3 seconds, passing through the timing gate at 186 mph.

SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 2594cc (two coupled Kawasaki 900 air-cooled four-cylinders bored out to 1297cc)

Power Rating: 600 hp

Valves: twin overhead camshafts

Fuel System: fuel injection; fuel is 98 percent nitromethane

Transmission: 2-specd; centrifugal clutch; chain final drive

Suspension: telescopic forks (front); rigid (rear)

Brakes: disk (front & rear)

Wheels: alloy (from) wheel with 13 inch wide rim (rear)

Weight: 772 lb

Maximum Speed: 186m h

One of France's few drag racers is the talented Dany Dieudonné, who with the aid of her husband rum in the European championship.