On 31/03/16 18:56, Roger Mills wrote:
On 31/03/2016 14:31, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In ,
Roger wrote:
Indeed. If you want to accelerate the car as fast as possible, you need
to maximise the power available at the wheels. This invariably means
taking the engine up to at least its maximum power speed before changing
up to the next gear. I say "at least" because quite often - unless you
have lots of closely spaced gears - you still get more acceleration in
the gear you're in by keeping going beyond max power speed until you run
our of revs than by changing to the next gear which drops you a long way
back down the power curve.

And idea set of gearbox ratios would allow you to change up round about
peak BHP and the next higher gear would plonk you at near enough maximum
torque...


Yes, it would. But you'd still have less thrust at the wheels because of
the higher gearing.

The optimal point to change up is beyond peak bhp, such that at the road
speed the car is doing, the BHP that results after you have changed up
is less than peak bhp by the same amount as the bhp when you changed up,
was before. That keeps the average BHP as high as possible, and thus the
overall acceleration as high as possible.

If BHP doesn't make cars accelerate why the **** do we bother with it,
since a million to one gearbox on an elastic band will give you more
torque than a formula one car engine.


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