[stangboy7]

I am racking my brain trying to remember what the ratio is for weight and horsepower. It's something like, for every so many pounds lost it is like gaining so many horsepower. Does anyone remember/know this. I googled it like 5 times but i dind't know how to word it. thanks

C.Hill

 

[SlowProject]

I'm not one to tell people to search, but I think this is what you are looking for.

http://forums.tccoa.com/showthread.php?t=92892&highlight=horsepower+weight

I didn't read through the thread but I think I will as soon as I have some time to spare.

 

[Toombs]

To use old extremely general terms, 100 lbs weight loss equals about a tenth in the quarter. So does 10 hp.

I would say then that 10 lbs = 1 hp.

Mike

 

[dirtyd0g]

Not in all cases, what if the wight is a suitcase full of money, thats certainly going to make more HP The math sounds like money math up to 300HP $10=1hp To 350HP $100=1hp..something like that.
Alan

 

[stangboy7]

To use old extremely general terms, 100 lbs weight loss equals about a tenth in the quarter. So does 10 hp.

I would say then that 10 lbs = 1 hp.

Mike

I found that conversion in a Formula 1 article. But I didn't know if it was comparable to regular car as opposed to Formula 1 race cars. Also i did search but was having ttrouble finding the wording for what i needed.

C.Hill

 

[Toombs]

I found that conversion in a Formula 1 article. But I didn't know if it was comparable to regular car as opposed to Formula 1 race cars. Also i did search but was having ttrouble finding the wording for what i needed.

C.Hill

Yeah, I wouldn't know how to search for that either. Mostly because I don't think anyone puts that in writing...lol. I just spent my whole life at a drag strip, so you pick these things up when everybody sits around bench racing between rounds.

The trouble with things like that is, as Alan said, that may be fairly close for the average setup, but the faster you go, the more power increase it take to decrease "x" seconds of ET. If nothing else, wind resistance is an exponential curve, and you have to overcome that to go faster.

Mike

 

[_95badbird]

always try to lose weight before making more horsepower/torqe.
The more power you throw at it, the more of a chance you'll have of breaking something.

 

[tbirdtess]

Less weight?

Hello

It's more like the less weight you have, the less Horsepower required to move said weight.
Thus the car is quicker, feeling like more HP.

I am moving my weight to rear of my race car. More rear weight for better handling in the corners. I am limited to a minimum of 3400lb. Right now in my 90 I have 3465lb with about 47% rear weight. Looking to improve with my 96 to 50% rear weight at 3425lb.

Paul

 

[Unherd]

To use old extremely general terms, 100 lbs weight loss equals about a tenth in the quarter. So does 10 hp.

I would say then that 10 lbs = 1 hp.

Mike

Yeah, that's just a general rule or rule of thumb. It can't apply in all situations. Meaning if you have a Honda Civic with 90 Hp, you're not going to gain a tenth of E.T. just by losing 100lbs. The opposite applies as well. If you have a 3000 Hp dragcar that weighs 1500 lbs - it, too, will benefit very little from a 100lb weight reduction.

 

[jfsram]

That is exactly true Unheard and your example was to the extreme.

For a closer to relality example. Friend had a 440 Duster with 605hp. It ran [email protected] 127mph in the quarter. It was sold to a guy with a 67 Charger that went 10.20's.
Charger dude figured his 440 would go mid to low 9's in the lighter Duster.
Charger 4400lbs, Duster 3300lbs. After the swap the Charger went 10.0's. Seemed the 440 didn't mind the weight.

 

[smitty2919]

yea i dunno about GAINING hp be losing weight. may just feel like more hp cuz its lighter and takes less to move the car. but to actually gain hp is kinda out there IMO

lol you wont gain it ull just get there little quicker maybe

 

[Silenced]

You can't use a flat equation for this. The gains for weight loss are more exponential than linear. The more weight you take off, the more of a gain you will see for every pound.

Weather it is worth your time to loose weight or not is all determined by your goals. I've gotta agree with BadBird that weight loss is a good thing to start with first, but for most of our goals, its not really required. Want to go sub 12.25? I'd suggest a little bit of a diet to save some money. Otherwise, I like my full interior.

 

[stangboy7]

yea i dunno about GAINING hp be losing weight. may just feel like more hp cuz its lighter and takes less to move the car. but to actually gain hp is kinda out there IMO

lol you wont gain it ull just get there little quicker maybe

Of course i understand that you can't GAIN horsepower by just losing weight. What I meant was losing such and such weight is like gaining so much horsepower. And i wanted to know what the general conversion was and i think i got it.
thanks

C.Hill

 

[_95badbird]

Of course i understand that you can't GAIN horsepower by just losing weight. What I meant was losing such and such weight is like gaining so much horsepower. And i wanted to know what the general conversion was and i think i got it.
thanks

C.Hill

Take this on....
When my car was stock, stock engine and tranny(215 HP) , and stock weight(3940 lbs), the car ran a best of 15.8 @ 86 mph.

Now, the same car with a bone stock 351W and a C6(210 hp), and now a race weight of 3200, the car has ran a best of 14.1 @ 96 mph.

I know the 351W will have a touch more torque than the 4.6, but the HP numbers are real close.

So, by my personal experience, losing weight(roughly 750 lbs) has dropped me over 1.7 seconds in the 1/4, and gained me 10 mph.

I bet, if I still had the stock engine and tranny, the car would run about the same with all the lost weight.....but who knows.

 

[stangboy7]

Take this on....
When my car was stock, stock engine and tranny(215 HP) , and stock weight(3940 lbs), the car ran a best of 15.8 @ 86 mph.

Now, the same car with a bone stock 351W and a C6(210 hp), and now a race weight of 3200, the car has ran a best of 14.1 @ 96 mph.

I know the 351W will have a touch more torque than the 4.6, but the HP numbers are real close.

So, by my personal experience, losing weight(roughly 750 lbs) has dropped me over 1.7 seconds in the 1/4, and gained me 10 mph.

I bet, if I still had the stock engine and tranny, the car would run about the same with all the lost weight.....but who knows.

How much room do you have with your 351 in there? Is it that much bigger than than the 4.6?

C.Hill

 

[_95badbird]

How much room do you have with your 351 in there? Is it that much bigger than than the 4.6?

C.Hill

nah, tons of room....

 

[FunktasticLucky]

The 351 I believe is actually a good deal smaller in width than a 4.6L.

But anyway a Car will Accellerate fastest at its peak Torque. So the more torque you have throughout the power band the quicker the car will be. This is why the 4.6L needs a higher stall converter. It doesn't have the low end torque to get these cars off the line. Its higher up in the RPMS. Your 351W on the other hand does have that Low end to get it off the line easier.

 

[Stinkfist04]

Is Aluminum Heads and Intake on the horizon somewhere..speaking of weight reduction..lol

 

[_95badbird]

Is Aluminum Heads and Intake on the horizon somewhere..speaking of weight reduction..lol

oh yes.....theres still MUCH to be done to this car....The engine thats in there now, is kinda like a test fit motor.
One of these days, something will take its place...

 

[jk69cat]

for comparision reasons for size 4.6= roughly size of a 460