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Old 06-05-2015, 09:55 AM
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Padgett
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Default Re: 0-60

How "fast" a car is depends on a lot of things and not just how much "power" it makes.

You have to consider many things (I'm more interested in the gearing and the area under the torque curve than maxes.

Back in the early '60s there was a group called the "RamChargers" and despite somewhat archaeic running gear dominated SS Drag racing. Mainly because they made a science out of weight tranfer. Coming off the line it looked like the car was rising stright up and level. Didn't look like anything else but came off the line faster and that was what counted.

One of the issues with the Crossfire is that the CG is too low for maximum transfer. Once people started understnding transfer you began to see cars jaked up in the back and low in the front.

The idea was to maximise the torque arm on launch so the car would initially rotate on the back axle and raise the front do the car was level (maximum weight transfer while using 90-10 shocks to keep the front trires on the ground and avoid a red light.

Toward the end of the 60s, really fast cars look twisted and tilted at rest but off the line everything would straigten out and go in a straight line despite having no weight on the front tires for the first 100 yards or so.

So yes, the Crossie is at a disadvantage in weght transfer compared to the taller BMW and that is critical when all you care about is straight line acceleration from a stop. The dynamics are entirely different from road racing with a rolling start.

Trivia: anyone know what the dime was for & what was in the float bowl in a LeMans start ?