drivetrain loss

[Jim Green]

--- Larry C Leung <l.leung at juno.com> wrote:

> Mike,
> 
> The energy goes into various places besides making
> the car go 
> forwards (or backwards!), mostly due to what is
> generally called
> frictional losses. Potential energy sinks:
> 
> Heat (into the drivetrain parts, air, lubes in the
> driveline, etc. -
> largest of the losses)
> Sound (all that whirring noise, that's losses!)
> Vibration (essentially work that's wasted in making
> parts vibrate up and
> down or whatever)
> Hysterisis (flexural absorbtion in the tires)
> Other mechanical losses (now we're getting into
> minor bits, shock
> absorber heat, spring flex, etc)
> 
> Since there are more bits to absorb in an AWD car
> vs. 2WD, there tends to
> be greater losses. 
> Don't know what losses are caused by the diffy
> fluids that shall remain
> nameless in the center of post
> '89 quattros......, although my understanding of
> those particular diffs
> (also known as Quaiffe's) is it's
> mostly a mechanical set-up, with lot's of little
> bits, allowing for much
> of the same losses as the overall,
> just on a much smaller scale....

Finally a good explanation.  Ugh. Let's see what else
can we add that takes away power, motor mounts, tranny
mounts, every other piece of rubber between the
suspension and the frame, oh yea, and the frame itself
will twist a little with lot's of power.  Let's see,
there's also the dent in my hood from when my snub
mount shredded,  I'm sure it took a fixed and not
variable amount of HP to do that.  I've been to the
dyno a few times and seen what lots of power will do
to cars, getting that power to the ground is not an
easy task and takes much more energy than you might
imagine.  There is a way to make the drive train more
efficient, just weld everything together.  I'd hate to
ride in that car though.  Bottom line, I don't see
anyone here with both types of dyno's to really prove
anyone wrong so we're all pretty much talking out of
our asses.  Not like it even matters, what we've done
is taken Cody's excitement and whipped it into a
frenzy.  If he says he has 500 hp and whoever you may
be doesn't believe him, go get a new viper and meet
him at the track.  Once he gets his new clutch I bet
he kicks your ass.  I've done it to a few first gen
vipers already with my self proclaimed 400 hp.

Peace with chicken grease.

=====
Jim Green
'89 90tq
'89 80q
http://www.mswanson.com/~jgreen/car_home.html


		
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