What's the relation between time/speed

When you go down the track you get a time and a speed. Someone mentioned to me that the speed was an indicator of horsepower, more than the time it seemed like. How does this work out, gearing too high/low, hp/ ??? low/high end acc, tq/hp curv/rpm ?

high time/high speed = ?

high time/low speed = ?

low time/high speed = ?

low time/low speed = ?

Just in general what indiates what, I've been trying to figure it out, but I'm sure that there's about 5000 people here who knows..

Thought I'd put it here in the boat section just to have some more stuff to look at here. :laugh:

 

OK I'll give this a try.

High time/high speed = The speed means your making plenty of power and the high time means your either losing traction or the car may be bogging and losing time. Could be your converter is not correctly matched to the combination. Things like traction loss have little effect on your speed.

High time/low speed = This means that your car is underpowered for its weight which accounts for the low speed as well as the slow/high times. If the same engine were in a lighter car it would go faster/higher speed but not nesesarily quicker/lower time.

Low time/high speed = This is your goal, it means your making pretty good power and are getting that power to the ground , suspension/tires, which accelerates your car. There's also a definate relationship between ET/MPH, just look up NHRA national records in the stock classes and see what the guys that really know what they're doing are running ET/MPH. Seems like I read somewhere on the net that a car that runs 100 MPH in the quarter is capable of running 13.2s. This means if your running 105 MPH at 13.20 ET then your missing something in your combo to help accelerate your car faster.

Low time/low speed = The only example I can think of here is a Mustang I ran last year. Sleeper/stock looking he went 12.00ET at 78 MPH, of course his numbers were on my ET slip as well and he ran 98 MPH in the eighth mile. My guess is that he let off the accelerator about the eighth and coasted the rest of the way. Probably didn't have the required safety equipment to run in the 11s

Hope this helps you understand a little better but there are so many variables it would take all day to come up with a partial list. Like last year I was racing a Firebird and my car just fell on its face just like the ignition was cut off and came right back. That one bobble cost me .8 of a second on my ET and the race but didn't even show up in the MPH.

Dave Berry