500-650 hp please apply

[jjtarnow]

Does a chassis dyno not do the trick?

[coyled]

A chassis dyno does not account for drivetrain power losses and I have seen a big difference in the same car from one dyno to another. A chassis dyno is great for tuneing purposes but is less accurate dyno to dyno than an engine dyno. Scott

[jjtarnow]

But don't they pretty much do the same thing? The dyno (engine or chassis) applies progessive resistance to varried rpm ranges? Also, I would assume it's easier to move a car from one chassis dyno to another but not nearly as easy to move an engine from one to the other. Meaning, if the chassis dyno's vary so should engine dyno's...no?

[coyled]

They both do the same thing. But, the engine dyno has less mass to turn so the flywheel, drive train, tires, how well the dyno is tied down, etc. There are just a lot more variables with a chassis dyno, different types of chassis dyno's, hence more variances.. An engine dyno is used for race classes and tend to be more accurate. The reason is that if a team gets a motor from you producing xx hp, they will know on the track if the hp is fudged when some other same class racer walks away from them on the straight. I also think the chassis dyno is more for tuning the motor than anything else. The hp loss is only a guess on a chassis dyno. But, comparing your cobra to somebody elses cobra of the same weight on the same dyno, will tell you who has more rear wheel hp. Scott

[LETSRCE]

Coyled, a chassis dyno does take in account drive train loss.
The HP & TQ are at the wheels which is through the drive train.
You are correct they are great for tuning and seeing how much crazy hp your engine makes.

[SCOBRAC]

You know when you have reached a point of saturation when it starts slowing you down. Wheel spin, missed shifts and too much throttle. I think for a street car driven by a average guy 400 hp is too much.

I think for a not so average guy 400-500 hp is reasonable, enjoyable and easier to deal with. I will be honest. I now have 538 hp. and 560 lbs ft. of torque. It's hard to drive. It isn't as enjoyable as the 375 hp in my old 428.

It will turn 7500 rpm and live though. That puts the top speed at 160+. If I had it to do over I'd go a bit easier on the compression, cam etc. 10.5 or even 10:1...

[Menace]

And people wonder why insurance for these things is hard to come by... Big hp cobras are what will Kill the sport.

[djseed]

My engine is a 501 stroker based on a 429 SCJ. It has a mild roller hydraulic cam, 9.9 to 1 compression and an RPM dual plane manifold on top of Kaase aluminum heads. It is very streetable. It only made 525 HP at 5800 and 600 TQ way down low. I designed it this way as maximum HP was not the reason for the build. I want to drive it on the street and have excellent reliability. The car has lots of power, sounds great and is a blast to drive.

[Street Stalker]

thanks all for your comments, but i think i will stick with what im working with. i know traction will be something to get use to but, my goal is hot rodding on the weekends and hopfully runnin a low 9 jus to get kicked off the track lol