Pardon me if this has been posted before:

http://popularmechanics.com:8080/perl/fram...9907AUCTBM.html

Jaguar XJR - 13.62 @104 MPH????

 

I didn't realize any of those cars were that fast .. damn ...

 

I'm having trouble with the numbers. But I think I understand... for example

#13 time: 13.62 @ 101.16
#12 time: 13.62 @ 104.21

hmmm... distance is constant, 1/4 mile. Time is the same, 13.62. But the 1/4 mile speeds are different. How can two different cars covering the same amount of distance in the same amount of time end up at different speeds? This suggests that one car, in this case the #13 car, got off the line quicker then the #12 car. Is my thinking right here? The #12 car then made up the ground in the higher gears.

If I'm correct in this assumption couldn't I also say that to get off the line quick you need a decent amount of torque? Since the S2000 can cover the 1/4 in about 13.x at 9xMPH wouldn't that then suggest that the S2000 gets off the line pretty quick (quick time but low 1/4 mile speed suggests this as shown above). From this I can postulate that the S2000 has quite a bit of torque since its 1/4 mile numbers suggest that it gets off the line quickly.

I may be way off base here... what do you think?

 

I believe this article is over 2 years old, possibly 3 or 4...

And what's up with testing an AT NSX?

CRitchie: How fast a car gets off the line is generally indicated by it's 0-60 feet time (which I believe the S2000 isn't the greatest at )... after that (hopefully the wheels have stopped spinning at that point) it's 100% pure unadultered power & aerodynamics.

 

My comments above, I should note, are mostly in jest. There are way too many variables involved in running 1/4 mile times. Launching, tire spin, driver, weather, etc. etc. It is really difficult to get anything concrete on a car's performance out of reports like this. The driver alone can do enough to make up a .5 second difference.

 

The 3000GT hasn't been sold new in the U.S.A. since 1999 so my guess is the article is a little dated.

 

The Cobra is a 99' at the earliest. It may be a 2001, so the article is 99' at the oldest.

 

acceleration is usually non-linear for cars.

car X goes from point A to point B in 5 seconds.
car Y goes from point A to point B in 4 seconds.

car X goes from point B to point C in 4 seconds.
car Y goes from point B to point C in 5 seconds.

They both take 9 seconds to go A to C, but they take different routes. Or in the given case, their accelerations (the rate of change in velocity) are greater thru certain speeds than others.

Another example is how some cars will beat us off the line, but in second gear we pass them. They out-accelerate us to 25mph but after that we have a faster acceleration and can catch up. So when we do catch up, we will have gone the same distance in the same amount of time, but we will be traveling faster.