RedM Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 I've just been watching that Texas Supra Nationals DVD and can't work out the following in the 1/4 mile event. How can one car do a 10.030 @ 132 and the other do 10.164 at only 108? The times are pretty close together but a 25 mph speed difference seems odd. Surely the slower car should have been travelling a fair bit faster? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamieP Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 one got better traction than the other... the car with the 130 terminal is a much faster car Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedM Posted July 26, 2006 Author Share Posted July 26, 2006 But surely to be within a gnats chuff time-wise they'd have to be doing similar speeds at the line. EG, if they both did exactly 10 sec runs but one cars terminal was 100 and the others was 120, would that make the 100 car slower overall but quicker off the line and the 120 slow off the line but capable of making time up? The more I think about the more confused I get. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scoboblio Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 Could also be to do with gearing, power delivery etc. Imagine one car has a superb 0-60 time, but the acceleration dies off after that. The second car has an average 0-60 but superb power in higher gears. Quite like the old 4WD vs RWD races I suppose, the 4WD car will sprint off the line, but come the end of the quarter mile the RWD car has caught up, and travelling faster than the 4WD when they both cross the line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooter Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 well the slower timed car could be quicker than the other.......but something broke or the driver backed off for some reason before the end hence the similar time........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colsoop Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 Terminal speed indicates the power, the time taken to cross the line has so many variables to take in to account. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lust2luv Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 Timing error or the car backed off - there's no way you can run a 10 second time at a maximum speed of 108mph, it's just not practically possible, terminal would have to be in the 120s at least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedM Posted July 26, 2006 Author Share Posted July 26, 2006 That's what I thought but it's there on DVD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbeh Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 The one that did the low 10 backed off half way down the track I think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lust2luv Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 If you can't see the car physically slow then the speed detector got a bad reading - it happened to me at Santa Pod, my fastest time of the day I had a terminal speed of 82mph or something (no NA jokes please!) To pull that time you'd need to average 88.5mph over the 10 seconds, you ain't gonna do that going from 0 - 108mph. Realistically you need a terminal of 120mph to break the 11 second barrier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedM Posted July 26, 2006 Author Share Posted July 26, 2006 Can I just establish that if two cars ran exactly 10sec passes they would have to have the same terminal speed. Is that right? You can't cover the same distance in the same time at anything other than the same speed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbeh Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 No, one could have a slow start, then played catch up, where the other may have had a nicer start getting to the line quicker but at a lower speed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scoboblio Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 No, one could have a slow start, then played catch up, where the other may have had a nicer start getting to the line quicker but at a lower speed. That's an understandable version of what I tried to say Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbeh Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 Take the classic Scooby vs Supra example.. Scooby gets a better start, but suffers top end speed, and the Supra may struggle for grip but ultimately catch up with more power etc and they could both get the same time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scoboblio Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 Quite like the old 4WD vs RWD races I suppose, the 4WD car will sprint off the line, but come the end of the quarter mile the RWD car has caught up, and travelling faster than the 4WD when they both cross the line. Take the classic Scooby vs Supra example.. Scooby gets a better start, but suffers top end speed, and the Supra may struggle for grip but ultimately catch up with more power etc and they could both get the same time There's an echo in here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 Can I just establish that if two cars ran exactly 10sec passes they would have to have the same terminal speed. Is that right? You can't cover the same distance in the same time at anything other than the same speed. Sadly it's not as easy as that Car 1 gets a great start, has good legs for the first 1/3 of the run and then builds speed at a slower rate to cross the line at 10 seconds. Car 2 gets lots of wheelspin, struggles to get the power down over the first 1/3 and then 'hooks up' with huge acceleration to draw level with the other car and also cross at 10 seconds. Car 2 will be going faster as it crosses the line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbeh Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 There's an echo in here Oops Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
letmeshowyou Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 hence why a good drag strip will record 60ft times, 1/8th times and ET's etc - the full set of readings is a much better indication of performance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now