Not trying to add fuel to the fire or whatever the saying is, BUT
if the clio has MORE power, and LESS weight, how can it be slower than the GTI6?
Not after a fight, just wanting someone to explain how in this situation it was faster - is it to do with the gearing?
No one seems to have answered your question, so I'll have a shot. And no doubt many others will have a different view on matters but this is mine.
There are an awful lot more factors at play than simply power-to-weight in car performance.
Even if it were as simple as that (which it isn't), think about this:
Take a car that weighs 800kg with 120 bhp. It has a power to weight ratio of 150 bhp/tonne
Take another car that weighs 1200kg with 170 bhp. It has a power to weight ratio of 141 bhp/tonne
So the owner of car 1 can happily strut around telling everyone how their car is a better performer.
Now put 2 adults in each car:
Car 1: 940kg with 120 bhp = 128 bhp /tonne
Car 2: 1340kg with 170 bhp = 127 bhp / tonne
Nothing in it now. Also add into it the effects of drag at high speed - the 120 bhp won't be enough to achieve good performance at high speed compared to the 170 bhp in the heavier car.
Now that is a little academic because the 2 cars in question have very similar power output. But that was just to highlight power to weight is quite misleading. If anyone here drives a s1 elise you will see a huge difference in performance with 2 people and a full tank of fuel and 1 person and 1/4 tank.
What is of relevance here:
Cars will produce their published power figures at a given RPM, such as 170 bhp at 6500 rpm. Away from 6500 RPM, power drops off. When you shift up a gear, RPM drops and therefore by definition so does power. How much the power drops off by depends on how your car is geared; if the ratios are very close the rev drop will be minimal so you will stay closer to peak power allowing a seemingly less powerful car to outperform another whos gearing drops them further out of the power band on shifting gears.
It gets even more complicated because gear ratios are also changing transmission output torque. So although you may know that when shifting from say 1st to 2nd at 6000 rpm your revs drop to 4000 rpm (made up figures), the power hasn't dropped to the power shown at 4000 rpm on the
1st gear graph, its dropped to the power at 4000 rpm on the
2nd gear graph which will be slightly different. This explains why for most cars if you want to do optimum gear shifts it is always best to shift at the red line despite being past peak power. This is because the power generated at the red line is in most cases still more than you will get at any RPM in the next gear, and after changing your new RPM will be closer to peak power again. Buts thats another topic entirely.
Nothing to add to the debate of clio v 306 tho :sleepy:
