DSM at 180mph

[LjasonL]

Alright you sunsabitches, I went through the trouble of looking up the CD and frontal drag figures for a 2G DSM, and did the math before I realized that thread was closed and that's too much work to just drop it, so here you go. Assuming you had the gears for it, a stock bodied Eclipse would need 241.514784 hp to the wheels to reach exactly 180mph. This doesn't include the amount of power needed to overcome rolling resistance to start moving in the 1st place, so about 260 hp to the wheels. AWD would then need to make even more power than a FWD, because of more drivetrain loss.

Of course a stock bodied DSM would never even stick to the road at that speed, and by the time you've added the aerodynamic aids to keep it down, you've increased the amount of power you'll need. So blah.

[YogsVR4]

I'd like to see the equation you used to come up with that figure.

[SkylineUSA]

260hp thats seems very low.

My R32 has about 310 to the wheels and she will only get to 160ish. You did mention gears, that does play a big factor, but if the gears are that high, 0-60 sure would sux.

[ghostchild316]

How long would it take to reach that top speed?

[High Octane]

Originally posted by YogsVR4
I'd like to see the equation you used to come up with that figure.

so owuld i .. im 15 and this looks fishy.. i think thers a problem

[LjasonL]

From August '01 Sport Compact Car:

Frontal Area: Amount of Frontal Area (large hood scoops, mirrors and bumper openings add to this and decrease your top speed.

Cd: Coefficient Drag.

Speed: In MPH

HP at the wheels = 0.000007 x Frontal Area x Cd x Speed(cubed)




And from this site http://home.earthlink.net/~jonaa/cd.html which took the figure from Car and Driver:

Car--------------Cd----------Frontal Area
Eclipse/Talon---.29----------20.4




So if you have any gripes about it, don't blame me, blame Dave Coleman.

[2of9]

i THINK i posted up a vid of a DSM hittin 180+. the whole video is 1:08 minutes long. and the guy who reached it, reached it less than a minute. i dunno how many horses it is to take a DSM to hit 180 mph, but for sure has to be over 240 hp, unless the car weighs like a GEO METRO (not sure bout geo metro weight with DSM power??).

[LjasonL]

Weight shouldn't change the top speed, just make it take longer to get there.

And with 260hp, it will take a while...

[flylwsi]

yeah, ya posted that video, but the only time it was confirmed to do 180 was in the title of the video.

if you're talking about the run across the desert, there is no proof from the car's speedo, or onboard ecu, or from a radar gun.

all it is is a video of a car going across the desert.

also.

that car was featured in the fwd vs. awd vs. rwd shoot out in sport compact car about 2 years ago, and it was making 400+hp.

it better have hit that kinda speed with that kinda power.

i don't doubt that car did it, but there's not any proof in the video...

[RACER D12]

If you had some NO2 you could spray and get their pretty quick even with the long gears.

[90gs]

Originally posted by ldelaysionl
Weight shouldn't change the top speed, just make it take longer to get there.

And with 260hp, it will take a while...

weight does affect top speed because it robs horsepower. if you put a civic engine in a semi with a full trailer i dont think it could even hit business district speed limit (35mph)..

[igor@af]

The Nissan 350Z is electronically limited to 160 or 165 but according to gear ratio calculations it can hit 180 in 6th gear.

[carrrnuttt]

Originally posted by 90gs


weight does affect top speed because it robs horsepower. if you put a civic engine in a semi with a full trailer i dont think it could even hit business district speed limit (35mph)..

First-off, the motor would blow its tranny and/or itself apart before that tractor-trailer even moves 2-feet. But that doesn't have anything to do with top-speed.

Top-speed is more reliant on a car's drag coefficient(cd), available power, and gearing, so it can punch through the thickening wall of air as the speed rises.

Check this out:

http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/fe...eek/index.html

The Vortech/Progress Civic Si that hit 204.3MPH in that article had a stock engine with a Vortech blower with about 274FWHP. I say had, because that motor blew during testing...though it ran at a max of 186MPH with it. The motor they had for the 200MPH run was the rebuilt version of the old one, with newer rods and pistons. Either way, it's a motor that somebody from the street can potentially have.

There were weight-reductions done to the car, mostly to the interior, and aerodynamic-enhancements...real ones. The gearing, obviously, was altered, the suspension revised, and the tire size was customized.

The point is, the weight on that car was the least of their worries.

[igor@af]

How can you be sure that the major factor was not the weight-reduction?

[carrrnuttt]

Originally posted by igor@af
How can you be sure that the major factor was not the weight-reduction?

I have the actual magazine article somewhere and have seen the pics of the interior. Yes, it was gutted, but they couldn't have taken off more than 400 to 500lbs, if that, which still leaves most of the car intact.

They also had a naturally-aspirated car that was street-legal, and mostly stock outside of the engine. With bolt-ons and the right tire combo, that car ran close to 160MPH or more, if I remember right.