Posted on 03/31/2015 6:33:41 PM PDT by nascarnation
March 28-29, 2015 Departure: Red Ball Parking Garage – 142 East 31st Street, NY, NY 10016 Arrival: R10 Social House – 179 N Harbor Dr, Redondo Beach, CA 90277 13 states – NY, NJ, WV, PA, OH, IL, IN, MO, OK, TX, NM, AZ, CA 2811.5 miles in 26 hours, 28 minutes, 13 seconds 106.21 mph Overall Average
23 Minutes 17 Seconds Stopped 107.79 mph Moving Average 3 Fuel Stops: 8m13s, 11m29s and 3m35s
70 Gallons Fuel Capacity ~230 Gallons of E85 used 12.22 MPG
(Excerpt) Read more at thetruthaboutcars.com ...
Back in 1977 when I was in my late 20s, I drove from Boston to Ohio, on day one, spent the night in a cheap motel, then drove from Ohio to Denver the second day (about 18 hours), spent the night in Denver, woke up to a broadcast on the radio that Elvis had died, then drove to California on the third day. It was exhausting!
kvanbrunt2 WINS!!
Diesel has higher caloric content. Turbo Diesels rule.
Did KC to Denver in ‘81. Lost speed perception, hit a 35MPH offramp at 70. Never doing that again.
Jack, it doesn’t matter about the gasoline energy content if you can’t use it. Alcohol’s higher octane allows higher boost pressures because less detonation. Which means even though gasoline has a higher BTU potential per gallon, you can’t put that to use with higher manifold air pressure -— instead, you’d get melted pistons, cracked blocks, etc.
Not everything is the pure the BTU :) Most of the highest specific output engines have been ethanol or methanol powered, because you can’t easily beat alcohol’s detonation resistance.
Leaded gas could work within that esoteric range (and still does for airplanes), but lead in our atmosphere is not a good idea, and I think we would have figured that out even without the EPA to force us in that direction.
I’d never do again either! About six hours on the road is tops for me now!
You can’t reliably get the power density of the GTR’s block on alcohol, with a turbo diesel (and I love turbo diesels).
Horsepower is a function of torque and rpm. Directly linear, in fact. To take on the combustion characteristics of a direct injection system, with the amount of torque needed to keep the diesel at a reasonable diesel RPM, would require a block and internal components that would make it impossible to fit into a compact luxury car.
Diesels will continue to improve as material science improves, but I would say for a reliable diesel, the Ford, Cummins, and Duramax diesels are probably at the limit for *reliable* road performance (not dismissing the propane, nitrous, and super-chipped versions of these engines, but they won’t last their warranty period if actually used in the capacity they are tuned too without significant internal upgrades, if run at their peak power for most of their usefukl lives).
Mercedes E250 Bluetec and some VW diesels can go up to 800 real-world driving miles on one tank.
Though I haven’t done the math, most of the US is above Sea Level. High Speed Diesels have made great improvements of late. I suspect that a study of the necessary HpHrs nessissary [sic] to get the job done would include a TD.
Uh, I’ve been using two for the last ten years.... YMMV...
From NYC to LA? I don't think so. Not officially, anyway.
The official record is somewhere just above 2100 mph, which puts the time at just under an hour and a half.
Now, it's a poorly kept secret that the crew that set that record went only as fast as they needed to set it, but the aircraft was good for more. But the AF has never publicly admitted to more.
The objective would be 24 hr. LeMan was won by Ford based on extensive dyno optimazation of a powertrain back in the day.
Did they use the two passenger version? What time advantage would be achieved by bailing out over LA?
I would disagree -— even Audi’s diesel LeMans car can’t tach very high. They only dominate due to the fuel energy density on diesel (less stops), and an advantage on manifold pressure (by rules, not by engineering -— the lemans rules state diesels can run higher displacement & manifold pressure since they can’t rev as high), because they just can’t reach into the esoteric RPM ranges a gasoline engine can run.
Also, thermal efficiency of a spark ignition and a diesel engine are not different at the compact engine level, when the throttle on the spark engine is wide open.
It’s at part load and low speed that diesel really shines. Not really advantageous in a race car :(
I think advances in metals may change the high speed game, but I wonder by then how advanced direct injection gasoline will be (it is already doing wonders for thermal efficiency in part throttle operation, even on basic 87 octane gas). Many new GDI engines in consumer grade cars are rated for their peak power on 87, due to the ability to somewhat curtail pre-detonation with direct injection. This will only improve with computer modeling, which by its nature will advance quicker than material science.
Anyway, that’s my prognostication :)
I did a run in a Northstar power STS from Decatur, Ga to the north side of Kansas City — 830 miles. I beat my normal time by about four hours — I’ll leave it at that.
marked
All SR-71s are two seat versions. And bailing out at 2K mph is not advised. ;)
It’s a mad mad mad mad world.
Displacement = hp. Burning fuel requires oxygen. IC engines are air pumps.
I rode the Nick Sand Metroliner
A trip of orange hue...lol
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