My supercharged NA Miata track car…
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Thanks much for the explanation. Though I wasn’t thinking of the math I really misspoke. What I should have said is I’m not interested in horsepower @ 14K rpm.
One of my favorite street engines is the Buell Thunderstorm. It’s amazing what he was able to do with the Evo 1200 motor. Easily the freest reving motor I’ve ridden.
Lest folks get confused coming up with massive HP numbers, it’s HP X RPM / 5252.
“Horsepower sells cars, torque wins races”—Carroll Shelby
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5252 is a constant, so change RPM and the torque generates more HP. Don’t need to be that detailed unless you want the exact number. The general jist is torque makes HP with more RPM. Exactly how much you need the equation, true.
And, torque and HP have to cross at 5252 RPM based on the equation. Look at the graph and it is busted for the V100S!
Going by that equation as fact, and it is, the graph I show for the V100S seems “broken” somehow. Notice the cross is above 5252 RPM, but at about 7000 RPM. The graph isn’t right. The units shouldn’t matter, FT-LB or Nm.
But the data does suggest torque makes your vehicle quick, but after torque goes past the peak, HP makes it fast.
Suspect data
Logical data
Best,
Galen
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Allen,
Exactly right, a broad flat torque peak will make stuff really scoot out! Keep that broad flat curve over a WIDE RPM and you really have something! Quick and fast, both.
There are a lot of engines that are either/or. My R100RT is an either engine. It breathes well at low RPM so no need to shift above 4500 RPM ever. The torque drops off above about 5500 RPM so all the “go” tapers off, you can feel it relax so SHIFT! The R100RT isn’t designed to make enough torque to generate high HP up top.
The V100S engine is a good “both” engine. Near 80 FT-LBS of torque and 115 HP up high over a wide BW. You can drive it about any way you want to, like the Buell but even more so (an even wider RPM range).
Best,
Galen
For those that are interested The Iron Butt Rally site is live. Riders are assembling in Pittsburg for weekend of activities ahead of the Monday morning start. World’s toughest riders going 11,000 miles in 11 daze.
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So–I couldn’t decide if this should go in the cars thread or Humor:
2014 Audi A4, 120,000-ish miles, manual trans, i love this clean but dinged, scratched, drive it to the city, station or supermarket, do everything car that runs like a Swiss watch.
Weird low speed only clunk in the front end that I or my favorite shop or 2 Audi service departments could not find. Yanking with crow bars can’t find unusual looseness.
Google Audi B8 front-end clunk and there is pretty universal finger pointing at the control arms—there are complete kits available for this elusive clunk in the steering area.
Steve, my favorite shop owner calls me–it’s done–but still clunking. Ok, I can’t sell it–it’s probably dangerous, so set it on fire but I don’t want it back until it’s fixed.
Next day, Brett, our hero mechanic comes back from vacation and thinks–it sounds like it’s the steering rack. But just for the hell of it, let’s look further back.
One loose bolt in the rear subframe.
$3,000 to tighten/Locktight one bolt. Ya gotta laugh at these things…
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I had a rattle suddenly develop on the front driver’s side (old Skoda ). If I hit the tyre I could hear the rattle. If I got someone to drive at 1mph I could hear the rattle. Jacked the car up, hit everything in sight and thought it might be a broken strut spring. Bought a pair of springs and new top mount rubbers. Phoned my Skoda dealer - said he couldn’t get the car in for three weeks and would book the car for the time to do all the work. I said that I just want to bring it in to confirm that it’s the spring. He said if it’s a broken spring he’d want to do the job … I decided to jack it up again before booking it in for all that work. By chance I touched the brake caliper (uses those horrible single piston floating calipers) and realised it was a rattly pad, i.e. as the piston released itself after braking the gap between disc and pad would cause a rattle (because the spring that prevents the pad from rattling had partly rusted and broken). Bought new pads - couldn’t get the piston fully back so swapped the pads over so that the pad near the piston had a working anti-rattle spring - all’s now well (I now have spare springs, top mounts and pads but the whole lot cost only about £100, about the value of the car).
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Roomba’s, Alexa’s, and robot war-dogs are all realities……I guess this is just around the corner.
Still, I have questions…….
• Will parallel parking be required when taking the driving license test?
• Rather than airbags, will parachutes be standard safety equipment?
• Where’s the trunk?
• Will it be available in Silver?
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here is the AeroCar I flew in the early 1990s, built about 1950. the owner was in town for an aerobatic flight with me in a Pitts (see below)
can’t help it…speaking of planes…
here is my first Sukhoi (about 1990) while the Sukhoi factory test pilots were in town
and here is what I called my office, gave about 4,000 hours of aerobatic instruction in the Pitts (in this pic, about 1990) I’m in back seat, student in front)
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I have seen these matrix lighting videos in the past (including this exact video), and the light output and the precision at preventing light from hitting oncoming drivers is unreal, just unreal!!!
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I looked at this recently too! They look fantastic. But are a tad small.
I normally keep a car 10 - 12 years. My 2013 XC70 is getting close to retirement so I have been looking. I am holding out hope that either Volvo or Polestar come out with either an electric or hydrogen big wagon like the XC70. In the meantime I keep looking.
Perhaps I will go back to my original love:
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My 15 year old vehicle says “I’m not done yet”. The 3.8 liter V6 Mitsubishi engine is still going strong, and still sounds great with over 100,000 miles.
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I need the back to be big enough for full sized dog crates while keeping the second row seats up. The Q7 is too small in the back. There’s very few wagons or hatches that have this much space in the back. The Mercedes E450 All Terrain is an example.
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2013 XC70 with 28.5K miles. Inner city life means I don’t drive that much. I am on my third tank of gas this year.
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Oh boy, I just built an E450 on Merc’s website. $94,380. I better keep that to myself for a little while. That’s going to take some gradual hints.
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Amazing! I saw one of these literally yesterday at the supermarket, of all places. 
Wow! You might consider adding Sta-bil to the tank.
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You’re well informed! I prefer its handling and overall performance.
At the time I tried an eTron it was a bit buggy and handled heavy. Haven’t driven one since.
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Three tons of automobile will never be nimble.
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