[Guest]

Saw Top Gear last night, which had the Focus WRC on it. They reckoned it was 2.48 seconds 0-60mph, (around 11 secs 0-110) and I think that was in second (maybe third) gear at that point.

HTF does it manage to do that? All the manufacturers claim around 300bhp and have to use a 34mm (I think) diameter air restrictor to limit the power, but according to a technical spec sheet I saw the cars have to weigh 1,230kg, which gives a power to weigth ratio of about 245bhp/tonne. I know they've got mountains of torque and short-ish gearing, but even so, surely the power output must be closer to 450-500bhp to get anywhere near that sort of launch speed? Are they using bigger horses

Do the manufacturers downplay the power output to prevent any more Group B type problems with the FIA? The current cars must be about as quick as the Group B monsters ever were.

Chris

 

[Guest]

It was on Driven, did you see it stop as well......unbelievable

i would have to say penny malory is my perfect woman

190mph in the new aston martin (2 miles per gallon) lovely.

lee

 

[Guest]

Chris,
You seem to be overlooking a few very important features of a WR car.

For a start it has antilag, so it is pulling away on full boost, it has very sticky tarmac tyres producng one hell of a lot of grip, and as you rightly point out it has gearing designed purely for maximum acceleration and an engine pushing out shed loads of the important stuff; TORQUE. Some teams also run a form of launch control in the ECU.

But on the other hand Driven could be trying to make Penny Mallory look good.

Dave.

 

[Guest]

it is actually torque that is the pulling power and not bhp. rally cars run 400|PLS|lbft of torque and that is inpressive.

think of it this way, bhp is measured from torque x rpm over some number do the higher you rev an engine on a dyno the more bhp you will get. now add to the equation the fact rally cars use a 34mm restrictor which mean the turbo will be not pushing much air over 6000rpm( usually rev limited to around 6k) that will explain the tow bhp figures.

torque is the pulling power
bhp is what decides the top speed

so probably that is why rally cars will get to 100mph in less than 10secs but will max at 110mph due to bhp and gearing.

i hope this makes sense. actually what i have written does not even make sense to me but it is all there

sam

 

[Guest]

I am confused by the figures. My understanding was that the Group A Evo 6 was pushing out about 315 bhp and 390 ft lbs of torque. Are the WRC cars so much more powerful? Was I wrong ( anything is possible ). With the gearing I am suprised by the 2.48 secs to 60 as I would have expected around 3 from what I had heard. However, the 11 secs to 110 seems about right.