Date: Tue, 7 Jul 1998 21:33:49 CDT
Reply-To: Joel Walker <JWALKER@UA1VM.UA.EDU>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Joel Walker <JWALKER@UA1VM.UA.EDU>
Subject: braking distances. again. :)
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
ok, remember the thread about how far it took to stop from 70 mph??
well, imagine that you work for a national car magazine, and you have
lots and lots of money laying around, and a big blank spot in next month's
magazine. what do you do? :)
go get a bunch of high-powered cars and see how fast they can go
0-150mph-0. yup. up to 150 miles per hour (240 kph) and then back down to
a complete stop. <bear with me, there's a point involving vanagons in here
somewhere>
so let's just take a look: Car and Driver, August 1998.
0-60mph 100mph 150mph 150mph->0mph
------- ------- ------- ------------
Kenny Brown 289RS Cobra: 4.5sec 10.7sec 34.1sec 8.4 sec
$67,500 216 ft 950 ft 5659 ft 775 ft
( 66 m. 292 m. 1.74 km 238 m.)
Hennessy Venom 600GTS: 3.5sec 7.6sec 18.5sec 8.9 sec
$141,394 162 ft 656 ft 2902 ft 866 ft
( 50 m. 202 m. 893 m. 266 m. )
Lingenfelter 415 ZR-1: 3.6sec 7.5sec 15.6sec 7.7 sec
$111,871 170 ft 630 ft 2328 ft 730 ft
( 52 m. 194 m. 716 m. 225 m. )
RENNTech SLR7.4 3,7sec 8.7sec 20.9sec 7.4 sec
$334,500 183 ft 775 ft 3264 ft 691 ft
( 56 m. 238 m. 1.00 km 213 m. )
Saleen S351 4.4sec 9.5sec 23.0sec 8.1 sec
$61,669 213 ft 826 ft 3533 ft 781 ft
( 66 m. 254 m. 1.09 km 240 m. )
Steeda Q 4.1sec 8.6sec 18.3sec 7.8 sec
$40,675 191 ft 726 ft 2761 ft 736 ft
( 59 m. 223 m. 850 m. 226 m. )
SVSi Viper RT/10 3.6sec 8.5sec 21.0sec 9.1 sec
$108,919 172 ft 752 ft 3312 ft 923 ft
( 53 m. 231 m. 1.02 km 284 m. )
(and some stock off-the-showroom cars ...)
Acura NSX 4.5sec 10.6sec 28.2sec ---
$88,136 --- --- --- 742 ft
( 228 m. )
Porsche 911 Carrera 4.8sec 12.3sec 38.2sec ---
$74,178 --- --- --- 751 ft
( 231 m. )
BMW 540i Sport 5.5sec 13.2sec 34.7sec ---
$56,512 --- --- --- 796 ft
( 245 m. )
ok. so what's the point? :)
well, looking the stopping distances from 70 mph, our buses didn't do tooo
bad. what was it? slightly over 200 ft or so? but look what happens when
you double that speed ... the distance increase at least THREE times!!!
think about this for a moment ... you hit the brakes as hard as you can
and it takes you over TWO FOOTBALL FIELDS to stop!!??? whoa momma!! :)
of course, you WERE travelling at 220 feet per second (68 meters per second).
which is 2.5 miles per minute (4 km per minute) or about two football fields
every three seconds. which is a damned sight more than any of our buses will
ever see. :)
point being that going up in speed to 75-80 mph not only increases your
fuel consumption, but also increases your stopping distance quite a bit.
not as much as 150 mph, but it's more than, say, at 65 mph. :)
and no, i don't perzactly know why i typed this in. but it seemed like a
good idea when i started. i thought it was kinda interesting. in an odd
sort of way. i was just rather blown away by those stopping distances.
the acceleration figures don't impress me anymore. the fact that some of
these cars can be doing 150 mph by the time my bus gets up to 60 mph ...
well, so what? if i set up the race to the object is to transport seven
people 100 miles as fast as possible, i'll win. :)
joel
