rag racing has been a very popular motor sport that began in the early fifties. Today the sport is still thriving. Nitrous Oxide is widely used in many forms of Motor sports including Drag Racing. Nitrous oxide is a relatively cheap way of adding great amounts of horsepower.
The nitrous oxide is injected along with extra fuel into an engines cylinders which causes the fuel to burn at a faster rate. This is what increases the horsepower by 50 to 1000HP depending on the application.
How does nitrous work?
Nitrous oxide is injected into an engine’s cylinders. It is made up of 2 parts nitrogen and one part oxygen. When the nitrous is injected into an engine's cylinders during combustion, extra oxygen is released. This allows more fuel to be burned, which creates higher cylinder pressures. The higher cylinder pressures mean more Horsepower.
Why use Nitrous?
Nitrous oxide is used on both race cars and street cars. Nitrous oxide is very versatile, and easy to swap from vehicle to vehicle. It is very popular because of the good performance increase to the low cost. Nitrous is only used when needed, so drive ability is maintained, along with gas mileage. That is why so many vehicles on the street use NOS. Another plus is that nitrous works on the new computer controlled vehicles that don't allow for traditional performance modifications.
Who uses Nitrous?
Nitrous oxide is used in many forms of Motor sports. Drag racing is one of the more popular applications for the use of nitrous oxide. It is also used in snowmobile, motorcycle and seadoo applications. In Drag racing there are many classes, from street cars to Top Fuel funny Cars. Nitrous is used in a wide range of the classes, but at different levels. The street cars mainly use one stage of nitrous which means they have one set of solenoids to add up to 200HP. The Pro Stock classes use two and even three stages to add an extra 500-1000HP. Theses extra stages are activated at certain points down the track on each pass made down the track.
NOS History

The use of nitrous oxide (N2O) as a performance enhancement has been traced back to World War II, where it was employed to give Allied aircraft "emergency" boosts in both airspeed and altitude capabilities. However, with the advent of jet propulsion at the end of WWII, the government's interest in piston-powered aircraft waned, and for the most part, nitrous R&D was shelved.
There were sporadic attempts at using nitrous oxide in race cars over the next few decades, but since for the most part it was a clandestine, closely-guarded secret, and not too many people were aware of its existence.
Finally, in the 1970s, nitrous "came out of the closet". It was the hot topic of conversation. Especially since a number of entrepreneurs brought systems to market that were highly erratic, at best. It was at this point in time when a couple of successful automotive technicians and racers, Mike Thermos and Dale Vaznaian, saw there was a potential for nitrous - done right.
In 1978 Mike and Dale formed Nitrous Oxide Systems, Inc., and the rest is history. They didn't invent nitrous oxide - they simply perfected its use and elevated it to a position of prominence in the automotive performance community.
The company's early years were largely spent demonstrating that nitrous oxide was an efficient, safe and reliable form of performance enhancement. NOS has always been known for thoroughly engineering each application, using only the best quality materials, and producing kits that were easy to install and built for long service. And with enthusiast publications like Hot Rod, Car Craft and Popular Hot Rodding, among many, informing their readerships with in-depth tech features on NOS systems for various applications, the word began to spread.
Perhaps the greatest boost to the popularity of nitrous oxide was the advent of drag racing's Pro Mod class. Early pioneers like Charles Carpenter, Bill Kuhlmann and Robby Vandergriff captured the imagination of race fans with their impressive performances with stock-bodied cars. And NOS was there for every performance milestone - the first 200 mph run by a "doorslammer", the first 6-second run, etc. In fact, every single key performance milestone with nitrous has been set by racers using NOS systems.
Today, with over twenty years experience building nitrous systems for racing and street applications, NOS remains THE dominant force in the industry. A great deal of the company's success can be attributed to its ongoing pursuit of perfection and extensive R&D efforts. Another key factor is the relationships that NOS has forged with leading racers and professional engine builders. Their input has served to keep the company on the leading edge of technology.
In 2002 NOS introduced the NOSzle systems for EFI cars. This design has revolutionized the nitrous industry.
As we enter the next millennium, NOS also defines a lifestyle... A lifestyle characterized by the movie, "The Fast and the Furious". This movie was a blockbuster hit during the summer of 2001, and established NOS as a household name.
NOS stands ready to serve its customers with the industry's most complete selection of nitrous oxide systems and a technical support team that's often rated as the best in the business. NOS is commited to building upon it's success by remaining the absolute leader in nitrous technology, period.
Nitrous Oxide
Nitrous oxide is an oxygen bearing compound. Its chemical designator is N2O, so we know each nitrous oxygen molecule has two nitrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. Nitrous oxide is sometimes incorrectly known as "NOS". That is an acronym for the company, Nitrous Oxide Systems, which is the largest marketer of nitrous oxide injections system for automotive use.
Nitrous oxide is a colorless, non-flammable gas. It has a slightly sweet taste and odor. It is non-toxic and non-irritating and when inhaled in small quantitites can produce mild hysteria and giggling or laughter. This is were the nickname "laughing gas" comes form. When inhaled in pure form it will cause death by asphyxiation because at atmospheric temperatures and pressure, the oxygen in nitrous oxide is not available to the body.
A property of nitrous oxide is that at about 565 degrees F., it breaks down into nitrogen and oxygen. When it is introduced into the intake tract of an internal combustion engine, it is sucked into the combustion chamber and, on the compression stroke, when the charge air temperature reachs 565 deg., a very oxygen-rich mixture results. If we add extra fuel during nitrous oxide injection, the effect is like a super charger or increasing the compression ratio of the engine. Automotive nitrous systems work like the automotive eqivalent of a jet's "afterburner" and is used for short duration extra bursts of power.
Nitrous oxide has this effect because it has a higher percentage of oxygen content than does the air in the atmosphere. Nitrous has 36% oxygen by weight and the atmosphere has 23%. Additionally, nitrous oxide is 50% more dense than air at the same pressure. Thus, a cubic foot of nitrous oxide contains 2.3 times as much oxygen as a cubic foot of air. Just do a bit of math in your head and you can see if we substitute some nitrous oxide for some of the air going into an engine than add the appropriate amount of additional fuel, the engine is going to put out more power.
Of course, when we significantly increase the cylinder pressure in the engine, we also increase the engine's tendancy to detonate. This is why almost all nitrous motors require retarded spark timing during nitrous oxide operation. The cylinder pressure increase is also why, when misused or improperly installed, operation with nitrous causes problems with head gasket seal and failures of the rings or pistons. Any number of things that put an engine into severe detonation, such as too much boost from a supercharger, low octane fuel, excessive compression ratio or overly lean air-fuel ratio will also cause the same kinds of damage.
Small doses of nitrous oxide can be used in stock engines to gain 25-35% more power. Any more than nitrous than that with a stock engine compromises durability too much. This is not only true of nitrous but any modification. Take a stock 82 or 84 engine, up the horsepower to 300hp and do nothing to improve durability and your engine will eventually suffer. Once you pass the 35% power increase mark with nitrous oxide you need to look at things like forged pistons, better connectiing rods, better bearings, etc.

How does nitrous work?
Nitrous oxide is injected into an engine’s cylinders. It is made up of 2 parts nitrogen and one part oxygen. When the nitrous is injected into an engine's cylinders during combustion, extra oxygen is released. This allows more fuel to be burned, which creates higher cylinder pressures. The higher cylinder pressures mean more Horsepower.
Why use Nitrous?
Nitrous oxide is used on both race cars and street cars. Nitrous oxide is very versatile, and easy to swap from vehicle to vehicle. It is very popular because of the good performance increase to the low cost. Nitrous is only used when needed, so drive ability is maintained, along with gas mileage. That is why so many vehicles on the street use NOS. Another plus is that nitrous works on the new computer controlled vehicles that don't allow for traditional performance modifications.
Who uses Nitrous?
Nitrous oxide is used in many forms of Motor sports. Drag racing is one of the more popular applications for the use of nitrous oxide. It is also used in snowmobile, motorcycle and seadoo applications. In Drag racing there are many classes, from street cars to Top Fuel funny Cars. Nitrous is used in a wide range of the classes, but at different levels. The street cars mainly use one stage of nitrous which means they have one set of solenoids to add up to 200HP. The Pro Stock classes use two and even three stages to add an extra 500-1000HP. Theses extra stages are activated at certain points down the track on each pass made down the track.
NOS History
The use of nitrous oxide (N2O) as a performance enhancement has been traced back to World War II, where it was employed to give Allied aircraft "emergency" boosts in both airspeed and altitude capabilities. However, with the advent of jet propulsion at the end of WWII, the government's interest in piston-powered aircraft waned, and for the most part, nitrous R&D was shelved.
There were sporadic attempts at using nitrous oxide in race cars over the next few decades, but since for the most part it was a clandestine, closely-guarded secret, and not too many people were aware of its existence.
Finally, in the 1970s, nitrous "came out of the closet". It was the hot topic of conversation. Especially since a number of entrepreneurs brought systems to market that were highly erratic, at best. It was at this point in time when a couple of successful automotive technicians and racers, Mike Thermos and Dale Vaznaian, saw there was a potential for nitrous - done right.
In 1978 Mike and Dale formed Nitrous Oxide Systems, Inc., and the rest is history. They didn't invent nitrous oxide - they simply perfected its use and elevated it to a position of prominence in the automotive performance community.
The company's early years were largely spent demonstrating that nitrous oxide was an efficient, safe and reliable form of performance enhancement. NOS has always been known for thoroughly engineering each application, using only the best quality materials, and producing kits that were easy to install and built for long service. And with enthusiast publications like Hot Rod, Car Craft and Popular Hot Rodding, among many, informing their readerships with in-depth tech features on NOS systems for various applications, the word began to spread.
Perhaps the greatest boost to the popularity of nitrous oxide was the advent of drag racing's Pro Mod class. Early pioneers like Charles Carpenter, Bill Kuhlmann and Robby Vandergriff captured the imagination of race fans with their impressive performances with stock-bodied cars. And NOS was there for every performance milestone - the first 200 mph run by a "doorslammer", the first 6-second run, etc. In fact, every single key performance milestone with nitrous has been set by racers using NOS systems.
Today, with over twenty years experience building nitrous systems for racing and street applications, NOS remains THE dominant force in the industry. A great deal of the company's success can be attributed to its ongoing pursuit of perfection and extensive R&D efforts. Another key factor is the relationships that NOS has forged with leading racers and professional engine builders. Their input has served to keep the company on the leading edge of technology.
In 2002 NOS introduced the NOSzle systems for EFI cars. This design has revolutionized the nitrous industry.
As we enter the next millennium, NOS also defines a lifestyle... A lifestyle characterized by the movie, "The Fast and the Furious". This movie was a blockbuster hit during the summer of 2001, and established NOS as a household name.
NOS stands ready to serve its customers with the industry's most complete selection of nitrous oxide systems and a technical support team that's often rated as the best in the business. NOS is commited to building upon it's success by remaining the absolute leader in nitrous technology, period.
Nitrous Oxide
Nitrous oxide is an oxygen bearing compound. Its chemical designator is N2O, so we know each nitrous oxygen molecule has two nitrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. Nitrous oxide is sometimes incorrectly known as "NOS". That is an acronym for the company, Nitrous Oxide Systems, which is the largest marketer of nitrous oxide injections system for automotive use.
Nitrous oxide is a colorless, non-flammable gas. It has a slightly sweet taste and odor. It is non-toxic and non-irritating and when inhaled in small quantitites can produce mild hysteria and giggling or laughter. This is were the nickname "laughing gas" comes form. When inhaled in pure form it will cause death by asphyxiation because at atmospheric temperatures and pressure, the oxygen in nitrous oxide is not available to the body.
A property of nitrous oxide is that at about 565 degrees F., it breaks down into nitrogen and oxygen. When it is introduced into the intake tract of an internal combustion engine, it is sucked into the combustion chamber and, on the compression stroke, when the charge air temperature reachs 565 deg., a very oxygen-rich mixture results. If we add extra fuel during nitrous oxide injection, the effect is like a super charger or increasing the compression ratio of the engine. Automotive nitrous systems work like the automotive eqivalent of a jet's "afterburner" and is used for short duration extra bursts of power.
Nitrous oxide has this effect because it has a higher percentage of oxygen content than does the air in the atmosphere. Nitrous has 36% oxygen by weight and the atmosphere has 23%. Additionally, nitrous oxide is 50% more dense than air at the same pressure. Thus, a cubic foot of nitrous oxide contains 2.3 times as much oxygen as a cubic foot of air. Just do a bit of math in your head and you can see if we substitute some nitrous oxide for some of the air going into an engine than add the appropriate amount of additional fuel, the engine is going to put out more power.
Of course, when we significantly increase the cylinder pressure in the engine, we also increase the engine's tendancy to detonate. This is why almost all nitrous motors require retarded spark timing during nitrous oxide operation. The cylinder pressure increase is also why, when misused or improperly installed, operation with nitrous causes problems with head gasket seal and failures of the rings or pistons. Any number of things that put an engine into severe detonation, such as too much boost from a supercharger, low octane fuel, excessive compression ratio or overly lean air-fuel ratio will also cause the same kinds of damage.
Small doses of nitrous oxide can be used in stock engines to gain 25-35% more power. Any more than nitrous than that with a stock engine compromises durability too much. This is not only true of nitrous but any modification. Take a stock 82 or 84 engine, up the horsepower to 300hp and do nothing to improve durability and your engine will eventually suffer. Once you pass the 35% power increase mark with nitrous oxide you need to look at things like forged pistons, better connectiing rods, better bearings, etc.
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