Zathrus~SPARTA~ Posted September 28, 2017 Share Posted September 28, 2017 Well it appears motor trend ran their "worlds greatest drag race" for 2017 last week. The results are predictable when you see the contestants, but I still found it interesting to watch how each car put hp to the ground. Today's cars are all doing a pretty good job of putting that HP to the pavement. enjoy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeno~SPARTA~ Posted October 1, 2017 Share Posted October 1, 2017 I watch this every year but missed this one, thanks. I have seen a similar thing by EVO (I think) done over a mile, this is much more interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zathrus~SPARTA~ Posted October 5, 2017 Author Share Posted October 5, 2017 (edited) I am always humored by videos of people driving super cars challenging a Tesla and being surprised by getting their doors blown off by it. ... silly folks forget electric motors are very efficient... they go from zero torque, to maximum torque nearly instantly. You cannot build a combustion engine/transmission assembly capable of beating that in any practical sense... if ever. If they can figure out how to make super capacitors light in weight yet capable of holding massive charges... without catching on fire or any silly thing like that.. a big electric motor on each wheel is going to be hard to beat for future sports car designs. It is going to be impossible for folks to resist the fact that torque is available nearly instantly... and can have very sophisticated stability, braking and torque control systems for each wheel independently. I know that rolling mass (mass of turning wheel assembly) can become a problem in some situations for the chassis if that rolling mass becomes too high a percentage of the total mass... so he may have to get creative. But the fact that the electric motor part of the rolling mass can also be the brake... is helpful since most of the problems for the chassis are in braking distance and how it responds in cornering. Even with the horrific weight penalties associated with the large batteries they have to use today these Tesla cars are fastest in about every category except top end... and they can adjust top end... on the fly.... ;) Tesla entering the picture in recent years reminds me of when someone introduced a Buick V6 twin turbo drag racer into NHRA racing. I cannot remember who it was, but this guy built a twin turbo 4.3L (or maybe it was a 4.6L) V6 Buick dragster.... I remember the initial speculation and remember many saying a V6? against an 8L V8 with a huge blower on it??? not a chance! this should be funny!! To their astonishment nothing could beat this twin turbo V6. It was lighter and producing about the same or more HP than it's big block V8 counterparts... with the turbo system he had put together the turbo lag common in many turbo systems of the day during initial acceleration was almost non existent... I remember the first day it was in NHRA sanctioned racing. That Buick blew people's minds as it very consistently beat almost every car put against it if I remember correctly... it only took 1/2 a season for them to BAN any turbo engine from NHRA. It was funny to watch... it was a very consistent performing car...unusually consistent in how it went down the track nearly exactly the same way each race. As the light went green the front wheels lifted about 4 to 6 inches off the ground... and stayed about 4 to 6 inches off the ground more than halfway down the track... the front settled back to the ground in a nice slow stable manner with the front wheels touching the ground again during the last 1/8th mile. It's track was always dead straight, it produced very consistent winning times over and over. I remember it repeated this nice straight acceleration down the track with the front wheels a few inches off the ground so consistently that I am certain it would be hard to tell many of the races apart except for his competitor's car changing being the identifier for each race. It was that consistent from race to race. He was very hard to beat unless he screwed up the light or something failed... which was rare... wish I could remember who that was..... That drag racer's blue printed & balanced 4.3L (might have been a 4.6L) with two huge oversized garret turbo's bolted to the intake was producing enormous amounts of HP... and it was far easier for him to adjust what that max HP/torque was going to be for each race condition than it was for someone running a large V8 with a blower. I think that was one of the keys to that car being able to do almost exactly the same thing every race as long as there weren't any mistakes or failures. When I saw how consistent he was the first day of televised racing showing him... I knew he would be banned quickly... it quickly appeared to be a nearly unbeatable package for that class in the hands of a competent driver. Moving back to present... IF they can keep the weight down, increase range and available power storage in a safe manner (one that doesn't spontaneously combust or explode if something goes wrong and shorts it out) with some of these upcoming super capacitor designs... can you imagine what Tesla might design and build if he suddenly was able to use motors twice as powerful as the most powerful he uses today and still be practical enough to sell? You know he will continue pushing this fact that nothing can beat his electric cars in acceleration by demonstrating greater and greater capabilities as technologies allow it practically. I think it would truly be a sports car capable of scaring the hell out of even very experienced drivers... although I am guessing to put that much torque/hp to the pavement the wheels/tires are going to be very large and abnormally wide... but he can tuck most of that under the car.. add flares around the wheel wells to cover the rest. Edited October 5, 2017 by Zathrus~SPARTA~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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