Altitude Sickness...
Thread Starter
2nd Gear Member
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 423
From: CA
Altitude Sickness...
I live at sea level. I went to Lake Tahoe this past weekend (6,000+ ft). This was the second time in three years I went there. After 3,000+ feet, I lose a lot of power at low RPM's. There's a wicked bog until 2,500 RPM's and then the motor comes alive. I did a search on this forum and it seems this is the type of performance expected at high altitudes. I saw a few S197's in town. For those of you who live at these altitudes, I don't know how you guys put up with it. More power to you. I spent 3 days in Tahoe and was already sick of driving in that town.
4th Gear Member
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 1,362
From: louisiana
4th Gear Member
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 1,440
From: North Idaho
I live at sea level. I went to Lake Tahoe this past weekend (6,000+ ft). This was the second time in three years I went there. After 3,000+ feet, I lose a lot of power at low RPM's. There's a wicked bog until 2,500 RPM's and then the motor comes alive. I did a search on this forum and it seems this is the type of performance expected at high altitudes. I saw a few S197's in town. For those of you who live at these altitudes, I don't know how you guys put up with it. More power to you. I spent 3 days in Tahoe and was already sick of driving in that town.
6th Gear Member
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 6,193
From: Montaner
There is only so much they can do to "fix" this with a tune. Less oxygen in the air means less power period. And keep in mind that MANY people use mail order tunes as well and are not dyno tuned or given any type of special high altitude mail order tune.
You want to "fix" this then you need to put a blower on the car or start using a bottle. Either that or move.
On the bright side it effects everybody else the same so the playing field is leveled. People that run 13s in the 1/4 mile NA at sea level are all going to be down by nearly a full second at 5000+ feet. It's all relative..
You want to "fix" this then you need to put a blower on the car or start using a bottle. Either that or move.
On the bright side it effects everybody else the same so the playing field is leveled. People that run 13s in the 1/4 mile NA at sea level are all going to be down by nearly a full second at 5000+ feet. It's all relative..
Mish-ogynist
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 3,784
From: Helena, MT
hah yeah, check my sig for what altitude does to you 
everything feels relative though. I really want to take my car down to sea level, see how it feels or run it at a drag strip if possible.
like riptide said, n2o or a lot of boost can negate the effects of altitude though. there are some formulas to determine how much boost you need to run for it to no longer have an effect. like the air pressure at sea level is 32 psi and at 6000' DA it's 17 psi and compression ratio in your car is 11:1 and you are running 36psi of boost and you stick in a forumala i posted somewhere and it comes out to not needing a DA correction As far as I know that is mostly theory, I haven't seen proven real world results, maybe someone who has done a lot of travelling with a heavily modded dragster can say.
everything feels relative though. I really want to take my car down to sea level, see how it feels or run it at a drag strip if possible.like riptide said, n2o or a lot of boost can negate the effects of altitude though. there are some formulas to determine how much boost you need to run for it to no longer have an effect. like the air pressure at sea level is 32 psi and at 6000' DA it's 17 psi and compression ratio in your car is 11:1 and you are running 36psi of boost and you stick in a forumala i posted somewhere and it comes out to not needing a DA correction
As far as I know that is mostly theory, I haven't seen proven real world results, maybe someone who has done a lot of travelling with a heavily modded dragster can say.
Last edited by Mishri; Jul 14, 2011 at 11:16 AM.
