I don't think the AC compressor shuts down on WOT on the S2000... Actually, I wish it did.. But I'm 95% certain it doesn't.
-- Aaron

 

not really true, afaik, because the serpentine belt is still turning parts of the assembly... the pulley and so on. if you removed it completely, that very small parasitic loss would also be removed. but having the feature does eat a teensy bit of power even when it's off, right?

 

This should be simple to test with 2 cars and some level road. Make a couple runs side-by-side, both cars with AC off to get a feel for how evenly matched the cars are. Then, on whichever car is faster, make a few runs with the AC ON, and see what the difference is.

Five or six runs may be enough to see if there's a difference. You might get more consistent results if you do something like run from 50-90 in third gear, so as to eliminate shifting differences.

 

from a line the affects of the a/c will be felt, but only slightly, but when you are rolling at a good RPM there'll be only like 3 hp loss
a/c really affects turbo and supercharged cars
but the larger the engine the less it affects it, i.e v6 v8
thanks Auto tech teacher

 

When I said 5 hp, I rounded up. When I said 0 hp, I rounded down.

The parasitic loss of turning the compressor pulley at a constant speed is hardly significant, maybe adds a tiny bit of rotational inertia to overcome when the engine speed is increased or decreased.

 

Someone could shunt a test light into the circuit temporarily - just see if there's voltage at the clutch at WOT.... then we'll have this burning issue resolved!

 

Just drive at WOT for 10 minutes and see how hot it gets inside