Akina/Haruna Downhill

[07CobaltGirl]

Here is my entry. Basically, a Civic with an L98 (350ci) shoveled under the hood (with heavy use of petroleum jelly to assist). It originally had RWD, but 1st-3rd were nothing but wheelspin so I made it AWD with a 6th gear. I'm pretty sure I've met the BHP/Tonne requirement. If not, maybe someone can help me understand that better. Like any good SBC motor, it gets horrendously shitty MPG, but it screams like a banshee when you ride it hard. Like with the BRC, I still don't know squat about suspensions, so there's probably a lot of room left in there for times? She's running on 215/35-15's all around, so I know there's room for improvement there. It just didn't seem like something "streetable" for 1994 on superwides, at least not in America.

SME-Hatch-D.zip

(30.88 KiB) Downloaded 254 times

[RAHayesJ]

I really don't get how you guys are going so fast. Even on slicks I just get to 300 seconds with almost 1.3G's in the corners. Carbon fiber body and panels yields roughly the same results.

[Leonardo9613]

I'm pretty sure I've met the BHP/Tonne requirement. If not, maybe someone can help me understand that better.

Sorry, but you haven't met the requirements, but that's because your game is set to use kW as a unit.
The way the system works is that you can have a maximum of, say, 300hp/tonne. That means that for each ton of car, you can only have 300hp.
A car with 1000 kg, a tonne, could only have 300 hp. One with 1500 kg, could have 450 hp, and so on.

A small formula to calculate the hp per kilo would be: Power (in hp)/ Weight (in kg). If you multiply that ratio by 1000, that's your hp/tonne.

To convert to other units:
kW to hp: you must multiply the power by 1.341
To change the weight from pounds to kilos (lb to kg), you must take the weight and multiply by 0.454

Your car has 322 kW and 1211 kg, so it's bhp/tonne is 356.57 hp/tonne, so it's above the class limit.

I am not sure I was very clear in my explanation, though

[strop]

I really don't get how you guys are going so fast. Even on slicks I just get to 300 seconds with almost 1.3G's in the corners. Carbon fiber body and panels yields roughly the same results.

Lightness and good power to weight ratio is the key! Once you have a car that's pushing the limits on both counts, then you should consider gearing.

[RAHayesJ]

I really don't get how you guys are going so fast. Even on slicks I just get to 300 seconds with almost 1.3G's in the corners. Carbon fiber body and panels yields roughly the same results.

Lightness and good power to weight ratio is the key! Once you have a car that's pushing the limits on both counts, then you should consider gearing.

I'll futz with that when I get home. Added power, reduced weight, got an even slower time.

[strop]

Yes I was initially frustrated at first because that happened to me too. The real fun of this challenge is that like in real touge, you can't just boost one aspect and expect an improvement, it has to be an integrated package.

[07CobaltGirl]

I'm pretty sure I've met the BHP/Tonne requirement. If not, maybe someone can help me understand that better.

Sorry, but you haven't met the requirements, but that's because your game is set to use kW as a unit.
The way the system works is that you can have a maximum of, say, 300hp/tonne. That means that for each ton of car, you can only have 300hp.
A car with 1000 kg, a tonne, could only have 300 hp. One with 1500 kg, could have 450 hp, and so on.

A small formula to calculate the hp per kilo would be: Power (in hp)/ Weight (in kg). If you multiply that ratio by 1000, that's your hp/tonne.

To convert to other units:
kW to hp: you must multiply the power by 1.341
To change the weight from pounds to kilos (lb to kg), you must take the weight and multiply by 0.454

Your car has 322 kW and 1211 kg, so it's bhp/tonne is 356.57 hp/tonne, so it's above the class limit.

I am not sure I was very clear in my explanation, though

OK. I guess the confusing part is the word "tonne", which you call 1000kg. In the US we call it "ton" and it is 2000 lb. But I did make the mistake of using kW instead of hp for my calculation. Using a "ton" I am still over at 323, so it still does not matter. It might be a good idea to not use statistics which are not actually calculated by the game in the future. I also think it is a bit backwards the NA gets less power than the turbo, given the turbo requires less weight to achieve more power, which makes them much faster by nature. Just an opinion. It rather skews the competition in favor of the turbo.

[Leonardo9613]

OK. I guess the confusing part is the word "tonne", which you call 1000kg. In the US we call it "ton" and it is 2000 lb.

The problem is, as always, mixing the imperial system with the metric system.
Even NASA already messed it all up, causing a satellite aimed for Mars to crash.
I had forgotten about the Imperial Ton (2000 lb, 908 kg), but the metric system has the metric tonne of 1000 kg (that's how it is written in French, where the metric system was born, and in the UK).

[RAHayesJ]

I'm pretty sure I've met the BHP/Tonne requirement. If not, maybe someone can help me understand that better.

I also think it is a bit backwards the NA gets less power than the turbo, given the turbo requires less weight to achieve more power, which makes them much faster by nature. Just an opinion. It rather skews the competition in favor of the turbo.

N/A's get the nice torque and responsiveness.

[Dragawn]

The reason why I lowered the power for NA is because of the tameness. A good tameness really helps here. If you guys want I can bump up the limit though.

[strop]

I can try out the na side of things to see where the balance may lie. I did find it interesting that the turbos in this configuration still came up trumps! Wonder what the average speed is... How long was the course?

[Dragawn]

It's about 7,8kms iirc

[strop]

OK so the average speed of the fastest cars on this downhill is just a shade under 100km/h. (I'm interested to see if there's a certain threshold where the different types will have a certain advantage.)

Also, if anything the NA engines aren't too far off being competitive on this track, just a little off the pace. I chucked in as light an NA engine as I could to achieve the perfect power:weight ratio while keeping the tune of "spartan sports car", and came up with a fairly respectable time in the 4:49s:

HarunaMesosHHNA.png (862.91 KiB) Viewed 7465 times

In addition here is the NA engine I used:

MesosHHNAengine.png (973.75 KiB) Viewed 7465 times

Of course changing the engine means I have to retune the gear ratios, so now it's a 6 speed to take advantage of a (paradoxically) narrower power band, and my front wheels have widened a little too.

[07CobaltGirl]

OK, 2nd attempt. Lower weight. Lower power. Slower time.
Same issues with power and traction so RWD still didn't work.
I did go back and widen the tires to 245/40R15 all around. It didn't help. (last attempt was 215's) With 16's, I can get 4:93.89, but meh. I suck at this car building thing.

PLEASE tell me I got it right this time?

4.0L NA V8 AWD
280HP/Tonne
308HP:1100kg

Downhill time: 4:54.41

[Dragawn]

<insert muscle car handling pun here>

Maybe RWD should get a boost? Considering almost noone uses it now