[tadgerman]

so my missus came home the other night claiming her W reg 1.0 knackered/beaten up old Micra can hit 50mph in 8 seconds....cue the I bet you £100 it can't, which then leads to a quick thrash and drag style excursion to prove one way or the other...

I was gob smacked and I find she has relieved my wallet of £100. Giving it the beans we hit 50mph in 8.3 seconds (iphone timing). The thing is though it took a further 4 seconds to do another 10mph.

So obviously we had to test the 330d, which gave me a great opportunity to test out Launch control. What's LC she asks as though this is somehow going to give me a slight edge over her time.
Well I said, we put this stick to the left, press this button twice, hold the brake pedal with my left foot, floor the gas with my right and two seconds later release the brake and we hit 50 in 4.6 sec and 60 exactly 1 second later...leaving a nice set of elevenses behind, oh and around £100 in rubber.

Needless to stay this made her super horny, much like the hand brake turn method does, but I still find myself £100 worse off.
Surprising these little light old cars!

[Andy30D]

I have also had this to prove, but with a 1.2 fiesta! I was also fairly surprised, they weigh nothing so are nippy!

And as you may have experienced, i was astonished to find the Mrs' clothes had fallen off after this. I nearly did a handbrake turn but i felt this may have been too much for her to handle.

[workshybum]

^^

My mrs used to have a Micra. Nippy little things and actually quite good fun to drive. You could also park it in spaces you didn't even think existed.

The only downside was, it was a Micra.

[TimMcC]

I've still never driven anything as fast as my old 1980 Daihatsu Charade XG 5-speed

[....,,,,..,,..]

We used to have a Toyota Yaris T Sport.

1.5 VVTi engine, all round discs etc.

Bloody roller skate.

Always humorous when you floored it and left people standing and your average salon driver could not keep up with it on sales roads etc.

How come you left rubber behind

[Slipperyshoe]

Originally Posted by Brigand

We used to have a Toyota Yaris T Sport.

1.5 VVTi engine, all round discs etc.

Bloody roller skate.

Always humorous when you floored it and left people standing and your average salon driver could not keep up with it on sales roads etc.

How come you left rubber behind

Brilliant! My wife had the same one and it was a true go-kart. A friend couldn't keep up around twisty roads in his 3.0 V6 Alpha Coupe!

[Pablo68]

You don't need much power to get to 50 mph as the wind resistance and rolling drag are relatively negligible up to that point - in fact you only need around 8hp to overcome wind resistance at that speed (depending on drag coeeficients) - so anything light will do it reasonably fast.

Due to the inverse square law and mechanicals such as gearing after 50 mph the effects of drag and rolling resistance mount up very quickly so power starts to be king no matter how light the vehicle is. That's why out "lowly" 35x's can easily keep up with an M3/M4 at legal speeds but beyond that the additional 25% or so power the M car makes quickly comes into play.

[troggy1969]

My fastest car was a '96 Rover 214 SLi. Still the only car I have managed 100 miles in an hour. Second goes to a 1.3 fiesta (also '96) which I regularly drove 260 miles in 3 hours!! The days of your first company cars and fuel cards '

Too scared (or responsible) to do it now!!!

[rich100]

Originally Posted by Pablo68

You don't need much power to get to 50 mph as the wind resistance and rolling drag are relatively negligible up to that point - in fact you only need around 8hp to overcome wind resistance at that speed (depending on drag coeeficients) - so anything light will do it reasonably fast.

Due to the inverse square law and mechanicals such as gearing after 50 mph the effects of drag and rolling resistance mount up very quickly so power starts to be king no matter how light the vehicle is. That's why out "lowly" 35x's can easily keep up with an M3/M4 at legal speeds but beyond that the additional 25% or so power the M car makes quickly comes into play.

Well I'm glad we cleared that up!

:

[NISFAN]

Originally Posted by Pablo68

You don't need much power to get to 50 mph as the wind resistance and rolling drag are relatively negligible up to that point - in fact you only need around 8hp to overcome wind resistance at that speed (depending on drag coeeficients) - so anything light will do it reasonably fast.

Due to the inverse square law and mechanicals such as gearing after 50 mph the effects of drag and rolling resistance mount up very quickly so power starts to be king no matter how light the vehicle is. That's why out "lowly" 35x's can easily keep up with an M3/M4 at legal speeds but beyond that the additional 25% or so power the M car makes quickly comes into play.

Erm, what is your definition of 'easily keep up'?

Power to weight works from zero miles an hour and is the definitive factor. There is a small 'traction' factor at low speeds, then it is pretty much F=MA or A=F/M

[Pablo68]

Originally Posted by NISFAN

Erm, what is your definition of 'easily keep up'?

Power to weight works from zero miles an hour and is the definitive factor. There is a small 'traction' factor at low speeds, then it is pretty much F=MA or A=F/M

Not get embarrassingly left behind

You know all this but some might not...

Indeed power to weight is always a factor but is constant, so even a 1.0L can get off the line quick if it light enough. Whereas drag becomes more of factor as speed increases to the point where it is the reason why you can't just keep accelerating because you need more and more power to overcome it.

Just as an example a car with a drag coefficient of 0.2 would require around 7hp to overcome drag at 50mph, 55hp to get to 100mph, 145hp to overcome drag a at 150mph and 344hp to overcome drag at 200mph.

So our 50bhp 1.0l Micra can get to 50 mph with little bother as the biggest factor up to there is it's weight which is very little, but by the time you are hitting 70ish mph almost all of it's available power is being used up overcoming wind resistance, rolling resistance and frictional losses with very little else left to accelerate any more, while out 250hp 330D still has loads left.

[Andrewthefirst]

Wow, a thread title I never thought I'd see 😄

[Lorcan]

Drag coefficient is just a "factor" relating to aerodynamic efficiency, it needs to be multiplied by the frontal area to mean much. A large car with a CD of 0.2 will be slower than a small car with the same CD, assuming the same power output.

[NISFAN]

Originally Posted by Lorcan

Drag coefficient is just a "factor" relating to aerodynamic efficiency, it needs to be multiplied by the frontal area to mean much. A large car with a CD of 0.2 will be slower than a small car with the same CD, assuming the same power output.

Is that why motorcycle drag racing riders need a very small, highly polished helmet?

[Lorcan]

Mine is a large actually

[Occean]

My wife's first car was a Suzuki cappuccino. Despite its 64hp and a max speed of 84mph it constantly felt like it was at warp speed.

Was also one of the best cars I've driven, fun wise!

[Pablo68]

Originally Posted by Lorcan

Drag coefficient is just a "factor" relating to aerodynamic efficiency, it needs to be multiplied by the frontal area to mean much. A large car with a CD of 0.2 will be slower than a small car with the same CD, assuming the same power output.

Well yes there is overall a lot more to it and I have very much simplified matters, but the overall concept is the point: The reason the micra has a "fast" 0-50 time but then takes an age to get to 60 is due to the increasing effects of drag. If you really really want I could splurge the ful maths on here but it would be very boring

[dopper99]

You guys are over-thinking this. It's simple ........ If you have xdrive you can beat ANYTHING off the line.

[....,,,,..,,..]

Originally Posted by dopper99

You guys are over-thinking this. It's simple ........ If you have xdrive you can beat ANYTHING off the line.

Yeah but there is no sport in that, it's more fun giving them a bit of a head start