earlier today i read a post about some idiot talking about how a/c affects your time at the track... but what about turning your fan on and blowing the hot air out of the engine... does this affect performance at all by taking some of the hot air out of the engine bay...

 

Only if you're overheating. And yes, A/C can affect your track times. Minutely, but it will affedt it.

 

I'm not really a good enough driver to take my car to the track, but you never noticed that your car is slower with the A/C on?

It was most prevalent with my 4 cyl cars, less with my 6 cyl (but still very noticeable), and not that noticeable (but still faintly present) in my GT.

 

my sisters 4 cyl car wouldnt make it up the mountain with the ac or heat on lol

 

I have a 98 Dodge Caravan (Work Truck) that I have to turn off the AC just to make it up hills around town at a decent speed so not to **** off the cars behind me in the Mile High City. Yeah, AC cause parasitic drag on the crank and lower the available horsepower to the rear wheels.

 

Air conditioning uses horsepower because the compressor gets it's power from the fan belt, or serpentine belt, or whatever you want to call it. The belt is driven by the crankshaft, the same thing that powers the whells through the drivetrain. So you're taking power away from the wheels. And it makes a difference at the track because of it. The heater probably does affect the time as well, but much less than the A/C does, because the only thing the heater needs is a fan to blow the air through the heat exhchanger. The fan gets it's power from the electrical system, which gets its' power from the alternator and the battery. I'd speculate that the air conditioner would add maybe 1/10th of a second to your ET (.10) . The heater would add maybe .02.

 

shouldnt run ac while drag racing anyhow. the condensation drain will put water down on the track while you are staged and guess where your rear tires go after you launch

 

Do these cars cut out the ac at wot?

 

yes they do. and most of you guys talked about a/c and i asked about the fans blowing the hot air. toad touched on this im not sure if the power it takes to blow the hot air out is worth it to get the hot air out of the engine bay... i would think with the fan just on 1 it barely takes any power to blow the air which to me seems like a lot of hot air coming off the engine. i would tihnk it would it down and let the engine breathe

 

dude if you say that, then you never will be. If you can drive your car down the street, you can drive it at the strip. Everyone is very friendly there and will help you with advice onburnout, launching, shifting, tire psi, mods, etc. Or you could just ask us. I think I had more fun at the track helping fellow s197 peeps with mod ideas and suggestions on better track performance than I did actually taking my own car down the strip. And practice makes perfect...