Corsa (His)
75bhp
His weight: 70kg
1455kg Weight
10kg of additional weight due to stuff in the car.
Total weight: 1535kg

Power to weight ratio = 1 : 20.5

This means that for every 20.5 pounds of weight on your vehicle, you have 1 horsepower. So for every 20.5 pounds of weight you remove from your vehicle, you will feel the effects of an additional 1 horsepower, although your actual peak horsepower will not change.

Punto (Mine)
60bhp
My weight: 115kg
1370kg Weight
45kg of additional weight due to tools in the boot.
Total weight: 1530kg

Power to weight ratio = 1 : 25.5

This means that for every 25.5 pounds of weight on your vehicle, you have 1 horsepower. So for every 25.5 pounds of weight you remove from your vehicle, you will feel the effects of an additional 1 horsepower, although your actual peak horsepower will not change.

By swapping cars you effectively move 45kg from your car to his and you get these results.

You in his car.
Power:Weight Ratio is 1 : 21.1

This means that for every 21.1 pounds of weight on your vehicle, you have 1 horsepower. So for every 21.1 pounds of weight you remove from your vehicle, you will feel the effects of an additional 1 horsepower, although your actual peak horsepower will not change.

Him in your car.
Power:Weight Ratio is 1 : 24.8

This means that for every 24.8 pounds of weight on your vehicle, you have 1 horsepower. So for every 24.8 pounds of weight you remove from your vehicle, you will feel the effects of an additional 1 horsepower, although your actual peak horsepower will not change.

You had a better power/weight ratio when you were in his car so you should have won.

There is a bio mechanical aspect too assuming you and your mate to be of equal(ish) average height at 70kg your mate is pretty lean with a low body fat and average to good bmi
You at 115kg will be carrying more body fat even if you are still very lean and more muscular. With a higher bmi

There have been many studies on performance in sport relating to body fat and bmi
All of them come to pretty much the same conclusion higher bmi or body fat means lower performance especially in speed and response,
That said there is a 45kg difference between the two of you which is equivalent to having 22x 2 litre bottles of coke weighing you down or nearly 80 pints of beer in weight.

If you go by Torque:

Me (Corsa) vs Him (Punto)
19.5kg per lb/ft of Torque --- 19.8kg per lb/ft of Torque
The rev bounce should account for why I didn't get ahead.

Me (Punto) vs Him (Corsa)
20.4kg per lb/ft of Torque --- 18.9kg per lb/ft of Torque

AndyRKett said:

There is a bio mechanical aspect too assuming you and your mate to be of equal(ish) average height at 70kg your mate is pretty lean with a low body fat and average to good bmi
You at 115kg will be carrying more body fat even if you are still very lean and more muscular. With a higher bmi

There have been many studies on performance in sport relating to body fat and bmi
All of them come to pretty much the same conclusion higher bmi or body fat means lower performance especially in speed and response,
That said there is a 45kg difference between the two of you which is equivalent to having 22x 2 litre bottles of coke weighing you down or nearly 80 pints of beer in weight.

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I'm a mixture between chunky and muscle. I have good reactions when it comes to driving though. More so in my own car. Not used to the gearbox in the corsa, not as smooth. On a dual carriageway, from a standing start at some lights, I was able to edge ahead.

My exhaust was kinda ****ed aswell. Blowing badly. Having that fixed tomorrow, so will race again and see what happens.

Make him drink 45 litres of coke next time to even things up

Got to remember that age and lost BHP plays a large part in it aswell.
Servicing scheduals and oil viscosity can take as much as 10-15bhp from your car. I know in this case, its probably weight that made the difference, and making the best of the power band(not letting it hit the limiter) can help too.
I know when I raced my mates Corsa C 1.2 16v against my 1.2 8v GP (private road of corse), I had his pants down due to his car having 102000 miles on it and mine being reletively newer.

Launch can play a large factor in winning a drag aswell, get a good lauch and you can be 3-8ft ahead from the start!
My advice,
Do individual timed runs in each others cars, 3 runs each in both cars and take the average of the runs. This will give you a good indication of which car is faster over the distance.

Either that or take it to Santa pod RWYB days and settle it officially

Cheers
Tom

Can i ask one simple question

You have 8v and he has a 16v.......
Why did you even try?

IF you had a sporting punto then maybe it'd be worth considering

But i hope this wasn't on the Road or in a carpark!
should be only on a track

if you want to improve yours car perforamnce in a straight line

Strip the whole back end out
No spare wheels stuff - no boot carpet - no rear bench seats - no passenger seat
Scrap the Radio in the back

Oh and add a 5p resistor from maplins to get 10+bhp*


Ziggy

*please note that was a joke!

I just read my post and realised I calculated kg instead of pounds.

Doesn't change the fact you were driving a more powerful car and lost.

The dip in revs didn't effect your friends performance, would seem your friend not only has the more powerful car but he's also a better driver.

He never experiences dipped revs. Being used to his car, he knows how to drive it fast. Whereas me having only driven it a handful of times, am unable to master smooth shifts in it. (The punto is much smoother).

We're going back out on Saturday to give it another whirl. I refuse to be beaten. Technically I should have won. I've been driving much longer, and have much more driving experience. So I don't have an excuse for not winning really. Apart from my lack of experience in his car.

And yes it is a 16V engine in the corsa, but that being said it's a bloody close race. The punto isn't a slouch and can definitely keep up. Had him coming out of a bend onto a straight. Sure if we kept on going he'd have passed, as he's got a higher top-speed. But that being said, the 8V punto certainly holds it's own.

He was better at driving in a straight line than you.

I have a relatively quick car but somebody in a much slower car with a bit of drag experience will still ruin me. There is a lot of technique involved.

Nobody has mentioned that an 8v will actually pick up quicker than 16 from standing.

volxstu said:

He was better at driving in a straight line than you.

I have a relatively quick car but somebody in a much slower car with a bit of drag experience will still ruin me. There is a lot of technique involved.

Nobody has mentioned that an 8v will actually pick up quicker than 16 from standing.

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It's definitely a case of: It's not what you drive, it's how you drive it.

We had an excellent "adventurous" drive on a public road which resulted in a huge adrenaline rush for me. After that I was kinda ****ed.

I'm going to stick to my car next time (I can't remember if I raced him in my car or not now.. I don't think I did. We stopped as there was a dodgy looking beamer that pulled into the place we were doing it. So we left.)

I'm going to try again. Refuse to give up.

volxstu said:

Nobody has mentioned that an 8v will actually pick up quicker than 16 from standing.

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Why?

To be honest, he did say he thought the punto felt like it had a bit more pull to start with. Might just be because its got a modified exhaust and sounds louder. More punchy. It's a brilliant little car.

Shadeyman said:

Why?

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8V engines like for like have more low down torque than 16. The 16v Punto engines have some kind of wizardry that ups the torque low down to get over this.

volxstu said:

8V engines like for like have more low down torque than 16. The 16v Punto engines have some kind of wizardry that ups the torque low down to get over this.

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Yeah its called a GSR kit

Psst...just because its a private car park doesn't mean you can't be done for driving offences .

Kier said:

Psst...just because its a private car park doesn't mean you can't be done for driving offences .

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I think for it to be ok - any access to or from the road needs to be gated and locked and you to have the owners permission to be there.

jenks69 said:

I think for it to be ok - any access to or from the road needs to be gated and locked and you to have the owners permission to be there.

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Which there wasnt im guessing as the "dodgy looking beamer" pulled in

smithmr8 said:

We stopped as there was a dodgy looking beamer that pulled into the place we were doing it. So we left.

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This has got to be one of the most retarded debates ever. Trying to guess the result in racing two of the slowest cars on the market

Both epic win right there. I've had faster accelerating bowel movements.