I was reading through the Roundel last night and ran across an article by Dave Farnsworth regarding the "cost of speed".
For those who haven't read it, the article compares a few select high end cars as to their weight, power and last of all their impact on the wallet. While I won't go into all of the details since the gist of it is pretty obvious, I can't help but think that we're not doing too badly on the lb/hp/$ front here.
For grins, let's say that someone comes up with a documented 450hp fiver in the near future. I think this to be a reasonable expectation if it hasn't already happened. At roughly 3200lb that comes to 7.1 lb/hp, putting it ahead of an M3 S3 (7.39), 911 twin turbo S50 (7.65) and the Vette C6 (8.7), and about equal to that of a Viper. The F430 has 6.52. The article goes into a bit more detail but you get the idea.
To a large degree this is apples and oranges. Those cars won't scare the crap out of you above 140, handle significantly better in many situations and are much more refined in many cases. I'm in no way saying that a turbo 5er could mop up with one of them but it sure puts our boxy old cars in the midst of some pretty serious high end hardware......at a mere fraction of their costs.
I find this interesting
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Bill in MN
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Yea, I agree.
How does the 600hp E28 look in comparison? We will be seeing those in the next year with all of the purpose built turbo engine projects completed (mine) and being completed (TCD, gol10dr1).
For example: my car weighs 3050 lbs (last time I checked, have more leather now
) at 600 crank hp (goal) =s 5.08 lbs/hp. What does that compare too?
[Edit by Duke M535ti Backup on [TIME]1139448800[/TIME]]
How does the 600hp E28 look in comparison? We will be seeing those in the next year with all of the purpose built turbo engine projects completed (mine) and being completed (TCD, gol10dr1).
For example: my car weighs 3050 lbs (last time I checked, have more leather now
) at 600 crank hp (goal) =s 5.08 lbs/hp. What does that compare too?[Edit by Duke M535ti Backup on [TIME]1139448800[/TIME]]
Ya,
I see it, but there is probably 50 or more old cars you can bolt up $10k worth of turbo performance to and do the same thing. Turbo tech is now so well researched, engineered and comodotised you can do it with a multitude of cars, new and old. From there spend a fraction of what a modern supercar cost, and get the same hp/weight ratio.
I was finnaly getting to some old Roundel reading. I finally read the Dinan ariticle on the SC'd E39 ///M5. That rig now cost just shy of $100k. At that cost, Id rather buy a F355 and still have a little money left over for a 5yr maintenance run. Id still rather have a 288GTO, but I think thats out of the $100k price range.
[Edit by russc on [TIME]1139475695[/TIME]]
I see it, but there is probably 50 or more old cars you can bolt up $10k worth of turbo performance to and do the same thing. Turbo tech is now so well researched, engineered and comodotised you can do it with a multitude of cars, new and old. From there spend a fraction of what a modern supercar cost, and get the same hp/weight ratio.
I was finnaly getting to some old Roundel reading. I finally read the Dinan ariticle on the SC'd E39 ///M5. That rig now cost just shy of $100k. At that cost, Id rather buy a F355 and still have a little money left over for a 5yr maintenance run. Id still rather have a 288GTO, but I think thats out of the $100k price range.
[Edit by russc on [TIME]1139475695[/TIME]]