7upedition

Guys, I read a thread earlier (Carbon Fiber Hood) today that sparked a big conversation here at work amongst us engineers, and it invloved how weight reductions affect power (hp). And after much math and examples varying force, acceleration, mass, distance. We concluded that regardless of vehicle make, model, and mass, over a 1/4 mile distance the same vehicle will decrease 0.1 sec for every 100lbs decreased from that particular vehicles traveling mass, in 1/4 mile, beyond that distance the power curve will eventually peak and plateau. The only limiting factor is if the peak power is reached before the 1/4 mile mark. So in other words if you take your car as it sits and run it down the track 1/4mile @ 12.5 sec, then take a pass 100 lbs lighter you will run a 12.4 (assuming the run is identical other than weight) and so on, if you take 300lbs away it'll be a 12.2sec run! Just a lil fact you might find interesting. [8D]

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samseed101

Very interesting indeed. But people have been saying that for many, many, many years, lol and is pretty much common knowledge at this point.

This reminds me though. Just this past week a bunch of friends and I were sitting around talking about cars drag racing, etc. We watched a ton of videos and did a ton of equasions and concluded that, in theory, cars with round wheels would tend to be faster than cars with square wheels.

samseed101

sorry, had to mess with ya. But that is actualyl something I had been hearing for as long as I can remember.

gspfunk

LOL!

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88blackgt

ya +1 its usually common knowledge. always wondered how much of an increase in hp would be required to increase qtr mile by .1. then again theres too many variables to generalize something like that i bet, mainly suspension

MrMiracle

You might find this video interesting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqc-JLfNeiM

They cut 223Kg (approx 490 lbs) from a Jaguar XJS and managed to reduce the 0-60 time from 8.6 seconds to 7.4,

What's more impressive is the 0-100 time was cut down by 5 whole seconds. After that, they throw on a 200 shot of nitrous just for fun.

What we can infer from this is that going from 0-60 they cut 1.2 seconds, but from 60-100 they cut 3.8.

I'd say this is because getting out of 0 has a lot more factors than just weight. Shape of the power curve, tires, suspension and the skill of the driver are just as relevant as weight. Once you're on your way down the track the suspension normalizes, the tires have established their grip, and any primate can shift into the higher gears. Weight plays a much bigger role after that.

88blackgt

+ aerodynamics. hard to go 200 when you have the aerodynamics of a brick

Ninety5five0

Just hold up a second. So lemme get this strait, round wheels are better than square wheels ? For serious ?

nitrous_bob

i don't see how thats possible, i have sum sweet a$$ dope pentagon spinners. and my $hit is hella fast , and pimp too yo.

AdderMk2

then how do foxes go so fast?