Ken sez: Subject: Big brake kits Interesting item from a car show on the Speed channel: they actually lost a few horsepower (on the dyno) by adding bigger brakes. The added rotational mass was the culprit. How ironic, you add something to help slow you down and it doesn't let you go as fast. Once up to speed rotationally, the masses act like a flywheel. Not much power required to keep em turning. I doubt the Speedchannel Windtunnel doodahs took this under consideration. The HP on a dyno is measured at specific RPM points. The implication is that you would gain horsepower if you reduced the load on the engine (toss out that heavy old flywheel) However this may just be a SWAG as I didn't see the show. |
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