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914World.com _ 914World Garage _ Googled mathamatical racing calculations and

Posted by: Dr. Roger Oct 21 2005, 06:04 PM

Takes an hour or so to get through but I throughly enjoyed it.

Does anyone else have good race technique / technology resources online?

http://autopedia.com/stuttgart-west/StuttPhysics.html

http://autopedia.com/stuttgart-west/StuttPhysics.html
I learned that a Vette at 55MPH takes a mathematical 7 HP to stay at 55MPH.
but takes 15 HP to stay at 65MPH.
Very interesting.

Roger

Posted by: lapuwali Oct 21 2005, 06:25 PM

Old site, but a good site.

Aero drag goes up as the square of the speed, so yes, going faster gets progressively harder. Note that a Vette ONLY takes 15hp to go 65mph. The "typical" car takes about 9hp to maintain 60mph (based on drag). So a very tiny engine is required to maintain freeway speeds. A 250cc engine can make 10hp pretty easily, and will get excellent mileage doing so. However, acceleration will be terrible. Give it 100hp for 30 seconds or so via electric motors, and you can have adequate acceleration, and a tiny engine can maintain cruise and recharge the batteries for the next bit of acceleration. This is how (eventually) a 100mpg hybrid will be made, once the automakers stop being so conservative.

Posted by: TimT Oct 21 2005, 06:43 PM

Yes, Ive had that bookmarked for years

some sort of Star Trek quote comes to mind

" Captain, you cannot change the laws of physics"

or something along those lines

Posted by: MattR Oct 22 2005, 11:11 PM

If you really want to blow your mind, pick up Race Car Vehicle Dynamics by Milliken/Milliken. Its published by SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) and is available at amazon. Its a really great book if you REALLY want to learn what a car is doing in a turn... and a bunch of other stuff. It has some high level math, but if you arent looking to make a profession out of it, its really informative.