Average Horse Power

[David Cooley]

At 07:02 PM 12/15/1999 +1100, you wrote:



<snip>
>This constant, I reckon, should be the type of constant we should use,
>instead of "my car produces 500 hp" etc. The dyno runs are fun and all,
>but seriously, people are learning that they can design cars to produce
>bigger MAX horsepower by transferring the torque range to a higher rev
>range, or by other methods such as turbocharging or supercharging, BUT
>all this added horsepower doesn't relate back to GETTING to that point,
>or in other words, the AVERAGE performance of a car... which I believe
>is what we're ALL looking for. I guess that the constant above is really
>just the quarter a mile times, but without all that slipping and human
>error. This also assumes that the dyno run was accurate and stuff.
>
>Anyway, enough of the babble, and back to the garage... just remember,
>AVERAGE is better than MAX...


For an everyday street driven car this is true... For a race car, the drive 
train is optimized to keep the engine right around peak power for the 
duration of the event...  On a drag car, that means torque converter stall 
(or clutch launch RPM) transmission gear ratios/final drive ratio and tire 
size.
For circle track etc, they are optimized with final drive/tire size/trans 
ratios so the car is in the power band during the race.  If it had no power 
off the line that wouldn't be a problem.

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David Cooley N5XMT Internet: N5XMT at bellsouth.net
Packet: N5XMT at KQ4LO.#INT.NC.USA.NA T.A.P.R. Member #7068
We are Borg... Prepare to be assimilated!
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