I would just like to state (because of all the talking about HP this and HP that), that HP alone does not always say how fast a car is. For example: I used to own a BMW E46 M3 CP. and a friend of mine had an AUDI RS4 (B7), my car had an in-line 6 cylinder, NA engine producing 343 hp at 8000 rpm, and the RS4 had a V8, NA engine producing 420 hp at 8000 rpm. The 2 cars was quite even from 50-250 km/h (tested on a strip, and not breaking any laws on the freeway
). Sure, it has a lot to do with it's weight, but it's not that easy to explain. Yes, hes car was the faster one, but not by the margin you might expect just looking at the output. (yes, I do know that the AUDI would've killed my M3 from a standing start, but standing starts is not a factor when doing flying laps)
In GT500 on the other hand, the cars are wery similar in weight, so that will not be a factor here. But, what might be a factor to concider is that the different models approved for the championship we are about to kick off, is the engines rews. As we all now by know, the NISMO Z has more tourqe than the other engines. But, it does'nt rew as high as the NSX for example. Laws of physics say : tourqe * rews = power. So, an engine with less rews but more tourqe could be as quick as an engine that rews high and has a smaller tourqe figure. But I'll be fair to say (beeing one of the Z drivers) that the NISMO Z is a very quick car, and is quicker on the straights, but not as much as the HP numbers might would show comparing to the NSX (534hp vs. 504hp).
I throw this one in as an example of the point I'm trying to get to.
In the late 90´s, an F1 engine produced around 850-900 hp from a v12 with the tiny volume of 3 liters. It rews up to 18-19000 rpm, but the amount of tourqe produced is around 300-350 Nm (around the same number as in everydaycars). This is ofcourse a great technological acheivment, but still shows what point I'm trying to make. And many people think that you need a lot of tourge to pull heavy loads, no you don't. The only thing that keeps the F1 engine (in theory) from being able to pull 36000 kg is the finalgear*, alowing it to stay in the higher rpm's where the power is produced in larger scale. A truck with a lot of tourqe in low rpm's make the engine to produce the power required at those low rpm's to pull the same weight. Offcourse this is an theoretic comparison. But just trying to make a point. You would ofcourse want the reliability of a low rpm'ed, high tourqe machine to pull heavy loads rather than have to change every part in the engine after every pull.. Again, my example is in theory. 👍
Then, what should we look at trying to decide why the NISMO Z is quicker? Well, unfortenutly those numbers are not to our disposal, since it might come down to details such as Cw values, weight distribution, unsprung weight (unsprung weight is a huge factor) and so on.
I'd say that all cars are fairly equal, and that the small differences between the cars in this championship will not be a factor in the end. Drivingskills (or tuningskills for that matter) will.
I don't know much about the Lexus. I had the GT-R, SUPRA, NSX and Z in mind. Cause those cars are the one that we will use as it looks.. Saw something about a Lexus earlier in the thread, but he's so insainly qick anyway
well, just wanted to get this of my chest since I'm at work infront of my computer without anything else to do actually
Also, I know my english is not the best, especially when trying to write about a complex subject. But I hope you guys will understand. If there is something you wonder about, just post. Thank you 👍
EDIT: I don't think "finalgear*" is the correct word. In sweedish, I wanted to say "utväxling", just in case any swede (or scandinavian for that matter) will read this and try to help out.
