Ridiculous Horsepower Dynos. How?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Zenith
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Yup... that's the issue. Powerful? Sure. Relatively reliable in known conditions? Sure. Powerful, reliable in all kinds of weather and climes from Finland to Dubhai, with a gearbox that doesn't ram it in like a sledgehammer on every upshift and gentle enough at full throttle past 200 mph that a geriatric playboy can hold it there? That's a tall order.

I know a lot of guys who "daily drive" ridiculously powerful cars. With a feather-light right foot and a lot of caution.

Anyone can drive a Veyron at a reasonable clip and not instantly die. There are cars with 1/3rd the power that will scream "squirrels!" and head for the nearest tree if you even think of burying the throttle.

I absolutely loathe the Veyron, but I can see where all the money on the price tag goes.

Still, I'd rather have a nine second Camaro, a Jag and a nice condo in the hills. :D
 
Troux
The main points have been hit on in here, but some things are being left out, and some are a little off.

Making cars reliable these days is much easier than it used to be. Building solid cooling systems and stronger parts is cheaper, and more info is available, plus cars are better designed for reliability from the start. The Supra is extremely reliable, as there have been many 1000HP Supras running stock block, stock head, stock head gasket, and stock radiator and fans (yes, really).

One of the primary factors is what these cars give up to make that power. No Supra is making 1000WHP on pump gas, unless you count E85, even that is a MAYBE. The highest, at my best guess, would be 600-650 on 93, and the turbo lag is unbearable for a mass-appeal car (non-car people like to buy high end exotics, too). Similarly, huge cams make an NA car more powerful, but make low-end driving much more difficult, and not ready for the inexperienced, unprepared, or lazy driver. A BIG cube engine increases driveability, but at the cost of gas mileage. Then, you can open the exhaust or intake up for better flow, but the car gets louder, and if you drop the cat, emission suffer, which are all big no-nos for production vehicles. Also, all of these cars are tuned. They use just the right combo of fuel and gas for maximum power, based on air density and temperature. In the case of a production car, they sacrifice a LOT of power by giving the car a VERY conservative tune (too much fuel), so that it can safely run in a Mexican summer or a Norway winter, along the beach or among the Alps. You can destroy an engine if it's perfect in one climate and fed too much air in another. Another factor is manufacturing costs. Tubular headers and a tightly-packaged intercooler are expensive, as are precision machined heads and all the other things that builders do.


The Veyron suffers from none of this.
Click to expand...

Thank you for filling me in on why most cars leave ridiculous amounts of power AND FUEL ECONOMY on the table from the factory.

That also means a car tuned to run well in Alaska (90F in the summer, tops) would probably run poorly or blow up anywhere in the lower 48 except for the nothern coastal areas and Maine.
 
Troux
The main points have been hit on in here, but some things are being left out, and some are a little off.

Making cars reliable these days is much easier than it used to be. Building solid cooling systems and stronger parts is cheaper, and more info is available, plus cars are better designed for reliability from the start. The Supra is extremely reliable, as there have been many 1000HP Supras running stock block, stock head, stock head gasket, and stock radiator and fans (yes, really).

One of the primary factors is what these cars give up to make that power. No Supra is making 1000WHP on pump gas, unless you count E85, even that is a MAYBE. The highest, at my best guess, would be 600-650 on 93, and the turbo lag is unbearable for a mass-appeal car (non-car people like to buy high end exotics, too). Similarly, huge cams make an NA car more powerful, but make low-end driving much more difficult, and not ready for the inexperienced, unprepared, or lazy driver. A BIG cube engine increases driveability, but at the cost of gas mileage. Then, you can open the exhaust or intake up for better flow, but the car gets louder, and if you drop the cat, emission suffer, which are all big no-nos for production vehicles. Also, all of these cars are tuned. They use just the right combo of fuel and gas for maximum power, based on air density and temperature. In the case of a production car, they sacrifice a LOT of power by giving the car a VERY conservative tune (too much fuel), so that it can safely run in a Mexican summer or a Norway winter, along the beach or among the Alps. You can destroy an engine if it's perfect in one climate and fed too much air in another. Another factor is manufacturing costs. Tubular headers and a tightly-packaged intercooler are expensive, as are precision machined heads and all the other things that builders do.

The Veyron suffers from none of this.
Click to expand...

Timing? Spark advance is where the power is. Yea you can lean a fuel mixture out and gain power too. But timing is where you get larger gains. With a tune you know you going to run a 93 octane only fuel or a set octane anyway. This allows you to advance the timing. This is because a higher octane fuel suppresses detonation.

Factory tune. They factor is tuned for crap fuels, 110 degrees temps, heat soaked traffic racers. Basically power is last priority in the factory tune. Reliability is priority.

This why a tune makes a heap of difference on a stock car. You start adding timing and the fuel needs go up. Cause power is up. :) trim Final AFR after you found optimal timing. Always always watch for lean conditions. As well when you log runs you will have knock counts and temps as well other factors to base your timing needs off of.

Fwiw I have experience tuning my own stuff. Was Leary at first. However 20+yrs into performance made it really simple for me.


Disclaimer

I'd suggest you don't mess with timing and fuel trims unless you know what your doing. Even mechanically advance aka distributor wi get you into trouble and melted piston or cranked ring landings. :)
 
What others said and also, the Veyron passed a lot of test and can be driven legally anywhere in the world.

Also as it seems (out of magazines,..) the veyron is very gentel to drive at low speed without overheating in traffic jam....

An other point is most of those 1000+ tuner cars would never pass homologation in a lot of countries. The Veyron or other factory super cars do. Those cars are also kind of "idiot" proof, meaning normal people could drive them. Pass a 1000hp supra into the hands of a normal guy and he probably will blow the motor up
 
No doubt some people have no business in anything modified.

Local guy buys an Evo. Blows it up. Rebuilds and blows up again. Ten other people around making similar or more power still together over half of these are stock cam only motors. We got one guy clocking 150+mph in the quarter. That was shake down passes. Car should be 850-900 AWHP when fully turned up. It is still alive. That one is max effort with Magnus goodies as well Fat Fabs magic.

Bolt ons and a tune are the best place for any newer car guy to get into modified cars.

Adding boost or nitrous is something that requires a good amount if knowledge of engines operations and there needs.
 

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