What would NASCAR'S run in the 1/4??

[MistaScott]

Originally posted by murphster
After looking at the article, I think the 1/4 mile number is fudged. While 130 MPH should equate to a low-mid 10 sec run, the article also mentions that the Nascar Winston Cup car used in the comparison took 6.21 sec to reach 60 MPH! That car was probably lucky to turn in the 12's!

HP wise, the cars are 9 sec cars, but I still doubt one would ever turn even in the 10's. I seriously doubt one has ever been taken on a real drag strip so all the numbers will be estimated by HP, weight, etc. Can't believe everything you read.

Doesn't sound too out of line considering the gearing. The article said the Winston Cup car took off like a bat out of hell from 40-70MPH. It is believable that it went from 60-130 in 4.3 seconds. That's only a 70 MPH increase. I think this excerpt makes sense:

"In fact, at over 60 mph he was still slipping the clutch. After that, however, the acceleration curve was steeper than the Matterhorn. From 40 to 70 mph, the race car accelerated quicker than a Dodge Viper GTS and nearly three times as fast as the stock Monte Carlo. When he finished the quarter-mile, Nemechek was doing over 130 mph. It was incredible to watch...If we had been testing an oval-track car with a deeper First gear, the race car would have been even quicker."

 

[murphster]

Doesn't make sense.... I 'll show you why.

Lets compare two cars. One is a grand national that runs mid 10's@130mph going all out with a decent 60 ft and 0-60mph time probably under 3 sec. Car two is our Winston Cup car that has a crappy 0-60mph time of 6.21 sec. Its claimed to have all top end and also finishes in the mid 10's. The grand national would be so far out front in the beginning that the Winston Cup car would have to go alot faster than 130mph in the 1/4 to catch it. Maybe if it reached 150mph in the 1/4 it would be going so much faster in the second 1/8th to be able to run the grand national down. Since the Winston Cup car also finishes at 130mph there is no way it could run it down and finish in the same amount of time. There would never be an instant in the 1/4 where the Cup car is running faster than the grand national so how could it run it down after giving the grand national such a big lead?

It doesn't make sense! No mathematical way a car with that poor of a 0-60 time would finish the 1/4 in 10.5 sec if it only ran 130mph. This being given that 10.5 sec cars normally run almost 130mph with awesome 0-60 times. I say again that they fudged the numbers and used a table or formula to estimate the 1/4 mile time. Look up 130 mph and you'll get low to mid 10's.

I could plug in some numbers and make some graphs and stuff predicting the mph needed for a car with a 6.21sec 0-60 to finish with a 10.5 sec 1/4 mile, but hopefully the above is a good enough argument.

(also... 60-130mph in 4.3 sec is pretty damn fast. It may take a 10.5 sec drag car 3.8 sec to go from 105 to 130mph. To do 60-130mph in 4.3 sec is insane.)

 

[XLR8]

With that slow of a 60' I'd be surprised if it ran 11's. From what I've seen, it's ALL in the first 60 feet. How else do the big boys run 8's and 9's at 90 mph when the let off or break before the 330' mark?

 

[BoostKillsStres]

Happened across these '02 Dodge NASCAR truck figures for the debate: These look like decent numbers since 6.9 to 100 is pretty darn close to 10.99 in the 1/4 and their numbers between those to points at least look like they'd be in a corresponding type range.

Power: 700 horsepower @ 8,200 rpm/450 lb.-ft. of torque @ 6,000 rpm

Redline: 9,000

Performance:

0-60 mph -- 3.9 seconds
0-100 mph -- 7.5 seconds
0-1/4 mile -- 11.6 seconds @ 126 mph
Top Speed -- 190 mph

 

[myclone]

A cup car wouldnt make it down the 1/4mi in the first place because:

Chicken bones make for lousy traction.
NASCAR would throw the red flag 10ft before the finish to get more sponsor air time.
If jeff gordon was driving he'd have to stop and smell the wild flowers he spied growing along side the track.
The race would turn into a riot when the beer drinkers saw the track workers using Bud instead of water in the burnout box.
If jeff gordon was driving hed have to stop and ask the ladies for fashion secrets/make up tips.


Just some humor directed at myself and ppl like me that live in NASCAR country...so no one get their panties in a wad. Its just a humor.

 

[kshef]

ok, i have the right to eat steak whenever i want.....if god intended animals to have the same rights as us, they would not be below us on the food chain dim wit.

what about when animals eat people

 

[MistaScott]

Originally posted by murphster
Doesn't make sense.... I 'll show you why.

Lets compare two cars. One is a grand national that runs mid 10's@130mph going all out with a decent 60 ft and 0-60mph time probably under 3 sec.

You have to understand gearing to know why. A 1.5:1 will go nowhere off the line. When it hits its powerband, it will FLY due to the 700+ horsepower. Keep in mind, in a Winston Cup car, first gear may well go until 90 MPH.

A 60' time means something for OUR cars because that is how our cars are geared. Nextel Cup uses much taller gears. You can't take GN drag racing parameters and apply them to a Cup car; they are apples and oranges. You don't know how fast the Cup car got to 130 MPH. It could have gotten to 120 in a heartbeat and then crept to 130. It's all in the gearing.

 

[murphster]

I guess the 10 sec drag cars have been doing it all wrong and aren't geared properly to accelerate from 60-130mph like the Nextel Cup guys. There is no gearing that will take a 780HP 3200lb car (w/o driver) from 60-130mph in 4.3sec. Maybe if it had about 1300HP... .

Regardless of the gearing, you have to take weight, HP, and the 1/4 mile distance into account. There's no apples and oranges about it. We are talking about similar weight and horsepower cars (comparing with a 10.5 sec grand national). The main differences are traction and aerodynamics. Gearing doesn't add power, just makes the drivetrain more efficient over a certain rpm range and road speed. I'm sure the Cup car in the test has a close ratio 4 spd transmission designed for speeds from 60-150mph, typical road course speeds. It still has 780HP and weighs 3200lb though.

I called Popular Mechanics and tracked down Ben Stewart, the author of the article. He admitted he fudged the numbers.