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Old 04-29-2009, 08:42 AM   #77 (permalink)
t-ray
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wellarmed View Post
I agree that 2 mph is a big diff. Being passed by another car at the finish line that is going 2 mph faster doesn't leave any doubt as to who's in charge at that moment.

My only point is (and I have thousands of quarter mile passes in everything from 13 seconds to 7 seconds), weather and track conditions could account for such a difference. If legit 106 mph runs have been made at a density altitude of 2000' (which is probably about average and would certainly not be considered undesirable) and the 108 mph run was made at a sea level/60* temp with a 10mph tailwind... there's your difference.

I don't recall that the people doing this 13.1/108 performance stated exactly what the conditions were or where they actually performed their test so I agree that's a consideration to question.
They also just rounded off those numbers so was it a 107.51 rounded up? I will say that those numbers do match up correctly assuming about a 1.9 60'.

I don't want to sound like I think that these cars are going to be laying down 108 mph runs on a regular basis. I guess my point is... just because somebody may have done it, doesn't mean that there's some kind of fairy dusting monkey business going on.

I will agree however that the validity of all these different test results are open to question concerning just how they were measuring the numbers. I actually don't believe any of these 0-60 numbers as being truely accurate. 60' times on a drag strip...yes. 0-60 mph measured in tenths of a sec.... no.

If these quarter mile times were done on a NHRA cert drag strip using the same equipment that would be used at a sanctioned race, then there isn't any room for argument. On the other hand.... if the guy was just looking at the speedo....
All good points. However, this article was in C&D, and the test procedures for C&D are published and well known.

Most of the time metrics are not collected at a sanctioned track - they are collected whereever the opportunity presents. And the timings are tracked with a unit called a VBOX. I can't remember the technical details, but C&D had quite an interesting article detailing the testing equipment several years back. From what I recall, the unit was very accurate - accurate for figures like ET and g's. However, this is a guess here, I would imagine the trap speed figures would be "optimistic" - much like a gtech.

But that's just a guess.
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