The quarter mile (INDY AND NASCAR V.S. COMMON SPORT CARS}
william roberts
appreciate it. I need to know if either an INDY type racer and/or a NASCAR type
racing vehicle would actually WIN in a 1/4 mile race with your common Mustang
5.0, Camaro Iroc, Corvette.
I have told them that the Indy would not have a chance, and that it would be
closer with the Nascar type, but still no chance. Am I right? Is the gearing
the factor? Or is horsepower (as one guy puts it) so powerful, that it
overrides the gearing factor.
-WILL-
Henri R Helanto
A couple of years ago I read about indycars running roughly 9sec
quarter mile times which is a lot faster than most street driven
- much less 'common' - cars are capable of. Nascar racing cars
don't have that bad power-to-weight -ratio either and even with
close ratio gearboxes and very long gearing they're hard to beat
in acceleration, at any speed. A purpose-built barely street legal
dragster can beat them in straight line acceleration but there's
no way that a 'common' car would.
-Henri
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VTEC
> If you can squelch the discussion at work about this subject, I would greatly
>appreciate it. I need to know if either an INDY type racer and/or a NASCAR type
>racing vehicle would actually WIN in a 1/4 mile race with your common Mustang
>5.0, Camaro Iroc, Corvette.
>I have told them that the Indy would not have a chance, and that it would be
>closer with the Nascar type, but still no chance. Am I right? Is the gearing
>the factor? Or is horsepower (as one guy puts it) so powerful, that it
>overrides the gearing factor.
> -WILL-
I'm afraid your opposition is correct. If I remember correctly, I
think the Indy cars 0-60 are in the low 3 second range, even with the
tall gearing they come with. Believe me, the high (~800-1000 hp)
power engines and outrageously low weight give them quite impressive
acceleration. I think the 1/4 mile times are well below 12 seconds as
well. I've never seen the NASCAR vehicles tested, so I can't really
comment.
Bob Gilbert
-> If you can squelch the discussion at work about this subject, I would greatly
->appreciate it. I need to know if either an INDY type racer and/or a NASCAR type
->racing vehicle would actually WIN in a 1/4 mile race with your common Mustang
->5.0, Camaro Iroc, Corvette.
->I have told them that the Indy would not have a chance, and that it would be
->closer with the Nascar type, but still no chance. Am I right? Is the gearing
->the factor? Or is horsepower (as one guy puts it) so powerful, that it
->overrides the gearing factor.
-> -WILL-
Indycar can do a quarter mile in the 8-9 second range.
This is much faster than any street car without significant
modifications. A NASCAR stocker would also be much faster
than a street car, but also no where near as fast as an Indycar.
Yes gearing would make a large difference. But considering that
the race cars typically change gearing for every track they run
at, it would not be outside their comeuppance to select appropiate
gearing for a 1/4 mile run. But even with fairly tall gearing,
both styles of race cars have sufficient power to break the wheels
loose.
Several years ago an Indycar was tested and ran a 9 second quarter
mile. This was with non-optimal gearing. Since that time,
the power output of Indycar engines has risen substantially, so
I would suspect that the 1/4 mile time has dropped also.
-Bob
David Bogle
> If you can squelch the discussion at work about this subject, I would greatly
> -WILL-
>
outputting over 800 horsepower compared to the 220 of the stock vehicles. Both
the Nascar and Indy vehicle weigh less than a stock vehicle. Finally both of
these cars run somehting very similar to slicks in order to hold the road (dry
weather tires). Nascar and Indy cars would smoke them easily all though their
off the line times would be slower than a car set up for drag racing. The indy
and Nascar would still smoke any of the above mentioned out of the hole.
--
David Bogle
Intralox Engineering
J. Dudley Benjafield
The original question brought up a good point. With the Indy and Nascar
gearing, would they be able to beat a hot street car. I don't know that the
answer is as simple as saying the race car has 800 horsepower. I know that
many race cars are set up for high speed and that they are not quick from a
standing start. Road and Track has run tests of some of these cars putting
their 1/4 mile times in the twelve to thirteen second range.
JDB
Thomas Augustus Kimberly
Back when IROC still used Cameros I remember Motorweek did a comparison
test between the the Camaro IROC-Z and the IROC prepared Camaro. The
street car out accelerated the race car from a standstill but once they
got moving the race car had the clear advantage. I believe it was on an
oval track so they didn't do a quarter mile or zero to sixty type thing.
-tak
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Kilgore Trout
They smoke those big slicks as far as they want to coming out
of the pits tall gearing and all.. They would run a VERY quick
1/4 mile time. No doubt about it.