I was reading that it is rumored that the S loses around 30hp in the S drive shaft and to remedy this, a corvette drive shaft has been used.

Is it true we lose a lot of horse power in the drive shaft?

If it is 30hp (or at least something substantial), then what can we do to remedy it?

 

Don't believe it. There is no hp loss in the drive shaft.

 

They loose ~30hp in the entire drivetrain. This means not just the driveshaft, but everything the engine has to spin, including the wheels. You can free up some of that horsepower by getting lighter wheels/flywheel/whatever else, but you won't see huge gains because of it.

 

The propshaft is just a hollow tube. Not much power loss going through such a short piece, especially since power transfer through it doesn't change directions. It's all the other stuff that loses the most power.

 

campbuds Posted on Jun 4 2006, 04:29 PM
Where are you reading this

IMO lighter drivetrain components don't really free up horsepower, they make those components speed up / accelerate faster.
And it takes just a little bit less power to keep them lighter parts spining.
Most powerloss is due to friction.

 

As everyone else has pointed out, the total driveline loss is in the neighborhood of 40-50 HP, and the bulk of the loss is from friction. Rotating mass does consume power (the only way to accelerate faster is to make either more torque or more power), but the inertial mass of an object depends on how far the mass is from the center of rotation. IOW, a mass spinning around a two foot circle at a given RPM has a lower inertial mass than the same mass spinning around a 6" circle at the same RPM. The driveshaft has a small diameter, so the inertial mass isn't as high as, for example, the flywheel, wheels, tires, crankshaft, and so on. So, while an exotic carbon fiber driveshaft can reduce inertial losses, it can't reduce them by much. For anything but an all out race car the money could be spent in other ways that would make more of a difference; A carbon fiber driveshaft cost more than a supercharger kit.

 

In the drivetrain the most loss i beleive would be in the differnetial itself because of the friction required to change the direction of the rotation, so just strap an f20 to each wheel and that should solve that problem.

 

In the drivetrain the most loss i beleive would be in the differnetial itself because of the friction required to change the direction of the rotation, so just strap an f20 to each wheel and that should solve that problem.

 

In the drivetrain the most loss i beleive would be in the differnetial itself because of the friction required to change the direction of the rotation, so just strap an f20 to each wheel and that should solve that problem.

 

Maybe... but why post it 3 times?