Highest top speed PER horsepower

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DQuaN

DQuaN

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After looking at a recent thread "Post da top speed and horsepower of your best car". It got me thinking what car has the best top speed for its power. i.e which car has the best aerodynamics?

Perhaps we could make a list of cars with their power/top speed ratio?
 
As boring as it may seem, the low power cars would get the best ratio. Say the motor wagen does 10 mph or something on it's lousy horsepower. or was it a half?

That would be hard to match for any car.

[edit] Yeah, what he said. ^
 
Perhaps we could set down some rules then? High power cars only?

400hp or more?
 
DQuaN
Perhaps we could set down some rules then? High power cars only?

400hp or more?
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That sounds better. :)

Just got GT4 again so I might pop into this thread later if it gets successful.

One question.

Are you aware that "good aerodynamics" probably makes most here think of it in terms as downforce? That would mean good means bad here. ;)
 
Jugend
As boring as it may seem, the low power cars would get the best ratio.
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There's a cubic relationship between the velocity and the power needed to overcome aerodynamic drag, i.e. for twice the speed you need 8 times the power.
 
Ok, perhaps we could find a range of cars, somehow tweak them so they all have exactly the same horsepower, and then test them.

This is turning out to be harder than i thought :grumpy:
 
DQuaN
Ok, perhaps we could find a range of cars, somehow tweak them so they all have exactly the same horsepower, and then test them.

This is turning out to be harder than i thought :grumpy:
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Well, neglecting all other driving resistances, you could compare topspeed^3 per horsepower (and this figure * 2 / (air density) would give you about cW*A ).
 
Verbal
Well, neglecting all other driving resistances, you could compare topspeed^3 per horsepower (and this figure * 2 / (air density) would give you about cW*A ).
Click to expand...

I think your keyboard's missing a few letters... :)
 
Hmmm... Suzuki Cappuchino?

Why not keep it simple? V-max / hp? Or how about... gasp, best in-class acceleration... for sub-20hp class, sub-30, sub-70 (Kei cars), sub-110 (budget cars), sub-150.... :dopey:


This sounds like fun... I'm buying Kei cars at the moment for something else, and might be able to give some time to doing this.
 
I think he meant it has 12hp and does around 80 mph?

The Citroen 2CV has 15hp and does about 40mph.
 
niky
Hmmm... Suzuki Cappuchino?

Why not keep it simple? V-max / hp?
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Because that's too simple, see above. Vmax^3/hp is just two keystrokes more on your calculator, but much more meaningful.
 
I recall back in the GT2 era, we all realized that the ratio of top speed versus horsepower was always had a greater figure in the kei cars than the so-called supercars. Even if it had 20hp, you could still get up to 80+ mph.

A lightened Fiat 500R with a race tranny had the highest ratio of speed/hp then, so it's probably going to be one of those Motor Carriages made in the 19th-century that will win this "battle".
 
leeste
hahahahahahahaha i gt 250mph in a nissan be-1 with 127 bhp using no wheelie cheats or nothing beat that .
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It can't reach speeds like that unless driven off a cliff... :odd:
 
^ Or hit by a Nissan R-92 CP.

I find it especially funny that he was so quick to point out that he didn't wheelie, espcially since wheelying a FF car would slow it down.
 
Ok, just out of curiosity I've calculated this. Don't know the exact drag coefficient, but a good guess would be you need about 960 PS to get that thing to 250mph. Or else a 7300ft cliff (the 2000 ft wasn't that far off for a vacuum, but when taking air drag into account, this changes dramatically. Actually it won't go faster than 254 regardless of cliff height...)
 
Verbal
Ok, just out of curiosity I've calculated this. Don't know the exact drag coefficient, but a good guess would be you need about 960 PS to get that thing to 250mph. Or else a 7300ft cliff (the 2000 ft wasn't that far off for a vacuum, but when taking air drag into account, this changes dramatically. Actually it won't go faster than 254 regardless of cliff height...)
Click to expand...

Whoa! Your calculator must be smokin' ... :sly:
 
So... are we just dividing the top speed by the amount of Horsepower? It could also differ on whether you measure power in PS or BHP, and if you measure speed in mph or km/h.

...vtec
 
Assuming that GT4 has real physics (hehe), the winner of this contest would be the car with the least air resistance.
 
Grand Prix
Assuming that GT4 has real physics (hehe), the winner of this contest would be the car with the least air resistance.
Click to expand...

What about cars that are so slow air resistance is almost negligable, i.e Daimler motor carriage thingys
 
Sure, those are slow. 5000 horespower isn't gonna get you anywhere in top speed per horsepower though, assuming the car is shaped like a brick because of the huge engine. We could go for a good compromise between AR and HP.
 
This is an iteresting idea, what you'd need to do is set classifications by power, or power to weight to seperate the cars. So you could have a table for the best hot hach type car, the best supercar, the best WRC rally car ect.
 

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