Re: 1/4 Mile Times vs Speeds

From: Kabuki2@aol.com
Date: Mon Mar 22 1999 - 14:02:30 EST


In a message dated 3/20/99 8:51:10 AM Pacific Standard Time,
rotrottmann@davidson.edu writes:

<< I was just looking over my little paper prizes from last night and
 realized that my times varied between a worst of 14.848, to a best of
 14.679, but my speeds only varied from 91.55 to 91.87. Is this some
 evil trick by the coefficient of friction gods or what? When I ran a
 15.076 it was at 90.10....shouldn't there be more variation?
 Just wonderin'
 Robert >>

ET usually represents your chassis configuration & tires ... the ability to
launch the car (or truck) from a dead stop, and sometimes shift if your car is
a manual. For eg; If your truck ran a 12.5 @ 108 mph on street tires.... It's
probably still going to go 108 mph on something sticky (maybe slightly less),
but your ET will probably be in the low 12 - high 11 second range. Usually if
you spin more, your MPH will be slightly higher.

MPH on the other hand is more of a horsepower figure than anything else. I
like to look at my MPH numbers more than my ETs .. . this is a better
indicator that my truck's still making the horsepower it should. FWIW - My
best ET is only a 14.5, but it was at 98 mph on a fairly humid night.

Also, if you like to street race, when you're out at the local test & tune or
grudge night, pay attention to other's MPH more than their ET.... For eg; If I
see a car running 14.5s at the track at only 94-95mph.. I know I've got a
fairly good chance of catching this guy on the other end of industrial park,
or where ever you like to race. :-)

ttyl
Patrick
surf.to/rdperformance



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:13:19 EDT