Picture of Your Car (2009)

[ctt1wbw]

No, but I live in Miami. People from 3rd world countries come here and get their licenses for $15. Bad enough.

So that's where they come from. They all migrate north to Virginia and cause chaos and mayhem.

 

[Flybye]

So that's where they come from. They all migrate north to Virginia and cause chaos and mayhem.

LMAO
I'll have to apologize for them escaping then.

 

[ctt1wbw]

Florida is where I want to retire to. I fell in love with Clearwater Beach, big time. I didn't really notice bad drivers there in my trips there.

 

[andreab35]

My new baby, I just picked it up yesterday.

2010 BMW 335i M-Sport Sedan with Black Sapphire metallic on Chestnut Brown leather and yes it's a manual!

I'm the blond one fyi.

Wow... you have my dream car in your hands!
I'd love to get a brand new BMW M3 Coupe in alpine white one day...
How do you like it? Must be a totally amazing experience!

 

[puma1552]

You forgot to paint your hood!
Seriously, I will never understand that. I am going to paint the adjustable carbon fiber wing that I have for the RX-7. Color coded body parts FTW!

It's because the people who don't paint them are usually ricers who bought them for looks and not performance.

Painted carbon fiber FTW

 

[Flybye]

On the 335, is that the intercooler up front or the AC condenser?

 

[VPrime]

You forgot to paint your hood!
Seriously, I will never understand that. I am going to paint the adjustable carbon fiber wing that I have for the RX-7. Color coded body parts FTW!

Why weigh it down with paint

I agree with you.. But some cars look great with it unpainted (depending on the car colour)

 

[ipodtoucher]

LOL Yeah, stay out of Virginia. The absolute worst drivers in history. And yeah, bad luck.

Well NOVA haha

No, NC has the worst by far (Except NJ, they have the #1 worst). Worst drivers and worst city cops. Trust me, I got sideswiped by someone making an illegal left on red (thru a green light on the oncoming traffic's road) whilst i was making a legal right on red and got hit on the left, and it was my fault somehow.
Then about 5 months later, I get passed on the right thru a intersection and hit on the right side. My whole front end was completely moved by about three inches and I had headlight issues after that. The other car got a dent in their door. No scratches, no nothing on them. My little sister (5 at the time) was in the car with me. Lady started yelling at me that she was gonna sue and all that. Cops came, guess who got the ticket? Me. 1999 Ford Escort was my car. Not sure the first, but I know it was a 80's either Olds or Buick. 2nd accident was a 2007 Chrysler Pacifica. Bad luck here with the Local City Cops. Sherrifs are great though. And NC State Troopers? Ever seen that movie Super Troopers? Thats how it is here.

I dunno, Ohio and Maryland have the tops in my book as the worst drivers ahahaha

 

[fireshot91]

I'm gonna go out on a limb, and say D.C drivers are horrible.

ipodtoucher, you SHOULD be able to back me up. You're in the suburbs. But then again, not everybody goes into the city.

 

[ipodtoucher]

I'm gonna go out on a limb, and say D.C drivers are horrible.

ipodtoucher, you SHOULD be able to back me up. You're in the suburbs. But then again, not everybody goes into the city.

I don't drive in the city, but walking in the city is just as dangerous... they're horrible

 

[yg17]

I'm gonna go out on a limb, and say D.C drivers are horrible.

ipodtoucher, you SHOULD be able to back me up. You're in the suburbs. But then again, not everybody goes into the city.

I had the pleasure of driving through DC (the city, not the 'burbs) for the first time about a month ago, and yeah, they're pretty bad. Probably the worst I've encountered.

My left leg and right arm got quite the workout too. As soon as you get going, you have to stop again because of all the damn traffic. I think if I lived in DC, I'd trade my car in for an automatic, driving a manual through the city was not fun.

For me, Toronto by far was the best big city to drive through. Traffic there is as bad as New York or DC, but the drivers are courteous and when they see plates from the US, they know you probably have no idea where you're going nor are you familiar with the small differences in the rules of the road between the US and Canada, and will give you room and let you in instead of honking and flipping you off like they do in New York and DC.

 

[Capt Crunch]

The following three people are absolutely wrong.

No, it's torque that matters. HP is what allows you to get torque at high RPM, so that you can continue to accelerate to high speed. Torque is why Audi and Peugeot are so dominant in Le Mans prototype racing. Their direct injection turbo diesels have so much torque (800+ ft.lb.) they kill everyone else on acceleration.

+1 torque is used for acceleration. The example with audi in the le mans is because their cars can punch it out of every corner and overtake much easier.

Their high peak torque numbers have absolutely nothing to do with their acceleration. You can make a million lbs/ft of torque and be outrun by a lawnlower if you don't make any hp.

If an Audi Lemans car outruns another car on the straight, it is because it is making more hp over the rev range that is used.

Also not true.

Torque gets the car rolling, and accelerating. Horsepower at high RPM allows the engine to sustain acceleration by facilitating more torque to be produced.

A bit of mechanical leverage through the drivetrain to a set of rear wheels with a short rear gear certainly helps things too.

This first part is completely false and I have no idea where people got the idea. The idea that "torque gets you moving and hp keeps you there" is completely contrary to the physics.

However, the second state is true! High torque AT THE WHEEL definitely helps acceleration! A F1 car's engine make crap for torque, but when you multiply it by the short gear ratio (allowed by the incredibly high rpm the torque is made) then you get monstrous torque at the wheel, allowing for high acceleration.

Peak engine torque means nothing by itself. Engine torque at a high rpm means high hp, and high acceleration.

I've argued with people about this before on the subaru boards, so I have a pretty informative post about it. Here it is: (sorry for the hijack)

[Note: this is cross-posted from the 2.5 forum here, but I think it applies to both.]

OK dudes and dudettes, it's time to finally set Torque vs. Horsepower to rest. Not to blow my own horn, but I am a Math and Physics major [now Math PhD student] so I'm not a complete idiot. Most of this is my own work, but I did get some examples and wording from a little research on the internet.

Part 1 - Introduction

"OMG my car pushes me back in the seat, it's got mad torque y000000!!!11"

Wrong, your car has mad horsepower y00000000.

Part 2 - The MATH

The math isn't that hard, even if you're lazy I encourage you to read this part.

Let:

F = Force
M = Mass
A = Acceleration
P = Power (motive)
V = Velocity
T = Torque

So we've all seen F = MA before. Standard physics and says for a fixed mass, force is proportional to acceleration. The people that have a hard-on about torque say: "Well, torque is a force, so the higher peak torque I have, the faster my car will go!" This is wrong, torque is not the force described here. We need to go a little bit further.

At a instant in time motive power (P) is:

P = FV

Rearranging gives F = P/V

Plugging this in to F = MA gives P/V = MA which in turn gives:

A = P/(MV)

Acceleration = Power / (Mass x Velocity)

This equation is the real deal. In this case acceleration is proportional to power which is measured in units of, you guessed it, horsepower.

Part 3 - WTF WHAT ABOUT TORQUE YOU FOOL?!!1

First let me start with Carroll Shelby's famous quote: "Horsepower sells cars, torque wins races." While I have the utmost respect for Shelby, this statement is misleading at best and at worst betrays massive ignorance about physics. It's wrong. Don't listen to it. Listen to me.

Torque is a force applied to a moment arm. One foot-pound of torque is taking a 1-foot socket wrench and pushing with 1 lb of force on the end of the wrench. The way an engine produces torque is the engine makes and explosion and pushes the piston down which in turn applies a torque on the crankshaft.

Where does horsepower come in? We first let's assume that an engine produces the same torque, say X ft-lbs, at any rpm. If you look at a dynograph this would be manifested by a flat torque line. The LS1-7 motors make a very nice flat torque line.

So lets floor our imaginary engine at 1000 rpm. The pistons turn the crank with the torque of X ft-lbs. Now let's floor our engine at 4000 rpm. The pistons are still turning the crank with the same torque, X ft-lbs, but this time it's applying it 4 times faster. How does this difference manifest itself?

Power = Torque / Time

What this equation implies is that power is proportional to torque and inversely proportional to time. This means if you double the torque, the power is doubled. Conversely, if you half the time taken, the power doubles. So the equation with units included is:

Power (horsepower) = [ Torque (ft/lbs) x RPM (revolutions/minute) ] / 5252 (revolutions)

HP = [ Torque x RPM ] / 5252

The 5252 is just a constant. Notice the revolution units cancel and you get units of (ft/lbs)/minute, which is exactly as above. Thus for our ideal engine if you spin at 4000 RPM instead of 1000 RPM you are applying the same torque in a quarter of the time, which means you are quadrupling your horsepower.

Part 4 - So why does my high-torque car feel faster?

Because it's making more horsepower. At a given RPM, if you increase the torque you increase the power and thus the acceleration. It's not that torque is something unrelated to horsepower and makes you faster all by itself.

Part 5 - Why more hp = fastAr in werds

You may have noticed from the equation A = P/(MV) that if you double the power you double the acceleration. "But Crunch," you ask, "If I double my RPM then I double my power, which means I double my acceleration, but I never feel it!" Correct, you don't, but that's because if you double your RPM then you are doubling your speed. Then you get:

A = 2P/(M * 2V) = P/(MV)

Which is exactly what you had before. The doubling of the speed cancels out whatever increase in power you make as a result of increasing the RPM. In other words, for a SPECIFIC GEAR (you cannot compare differently geared cars) P/V= Torque * rpm/V = Torque * C where C is a constant related to the gear ratio. So you get:

A = Torque * C/M

Or in other words, constant torque implies constant acceleration.

Don't let this equation fool you. This equation does not take gearing into account, change the gearing and you change the constant C. Let's see what happens when we compare differently geared cars. So lets look at out ideal motor which makes the same torque at all RPM. One engine with torque of 400 ft-lbs redlines at 4k, the other with 200 ft-lbs redlines at 8k. Plugging these into our little equation, both cars make the same peak HP. The first, 304.6 hp at 4k RPM, the second 304.6 hp at 8k RPM. If the cars are geared in such a way that both cars are going the same speed at their redline (4k and 8k respectively), then these cars will be equally fast. Why?

Well for the first car:

A_1 = torque * C/M

but for the second car the torque is halved, but the gear ratio constant is doubled.

A_2 = .5 * torque * 2 * C/M = A_1

The accelerations are the same!

Another way to think about it is looking at the dyno graph. Sometimes dyno graphs have horsepower listed as a function of speed. This takes gearing out of the equation and is easier to understand. Lets say you dyno the two cars above so that for each dyno run they go from 0 rpm to redline, which for both cars equates to, say, 120 mph. Then, their graphs will look identical. It will be a straight line from 0 hp at 0 RPM to 304.6 hp at 120 mph. They will be as fast as each other in EVERY SINGLE SITUATION EVER and yet one makes double the torque of the other.

So whoever has the most area under the HORSEPOWER curve over the rev range used will be faster. If you're racing and you shift from 6-8k RPM, the only thing that matters is how much power you're making from 6-8k RPM. If you're making 500 whp from 6-8k RPM and 5 whp everywhere else and your buddy is making 400 whp from 4-6k but has 5x the peak torque as you, you have nothing to worry about.

NO IF, ANDS, OR BUTS, HORSEPOWER WINS RACES. FORGET TORQUE. NOTHING ABOUT IT IS IMPORTANT OTHER THAN IT MAKES HORESPOWER.

Q.E.D.

 

[smk319]

Here is my car (the gray one) and my friend's.

 

[HughJ]

I do love the S14s lines, maybe even more than my R33

hmm, i think the R33 might just pip the 200 to the post on that score, although i have to say i prefer the S14 to mine (S14a)

 

[HughJ]

Very nice.
What size rubber do you have on it?
BTW, you can fit 275s in the back. Just going by a little personal experience.

the fronts only have 225/40 (8") and the rears are 235/40(9.5"), i will when the rears need replacing go for 255's i know i could go further but it can get expensive when the rears don't last too long

 

[HughJ]

I can haz mod list?

huh

 

[sochrisash]

is not like this atm, in pieces bless her

got some newer pics

just some small welding issues

some more

and some brakeage issues

 

[RaceTripper]

huh

Americans take pride in being illiterates these days.

 

[DoFoT9]

Americans take pride in being illiterates these days.

funny you say it like that.

i would say: all literate teenagers say it like that. (literate meaning that they know the language they are using). im glad i can understand it

 

[ipodtoucher]

Not mine, but my grandfather just bought a 2007 Shelby GT500 White with grey stipes. I can't wait to take better pics and drive it at Thanksgiving heeheee

 

[nullx86]

Well NOVA haha



I dunno, Ohio and Maryland have the tops in my book as the worst drivers ahahaha

Ohio, I will agree with you, because of the AA. Try driving in Jacksonville, NC. Combination of old-timer-farm-people and Marines. Not a good combination.

 

[Revlefty]

Not mine, but my grandfather just bought a 2007 Shelby GT500 White with grey stipes. I can't wait to take better pics and drive it at Thanksgiving heeheee

Thats the Shelby GT not the GT500. Still nice though.

 

[testcard]

VW Mk6 Golf GTD. 2.0litre/170BHP.

 

[sycho]

VW Mk6 Golf GTD. 2.0litre/170BHP.

I wish these would come to North America.

 

[entatlrg]

I don't think that's a good reason to buy a truck or an SUV. I'd rather focus on the more positive things. Like how much nicer smaller and lower cars are to drive. If I'll die because of my small-mid sized cars one day, so be it. You enjoy driving your boat.

I drive a Hummer H3 and LOVE it ... I'd never drive a small car, especially something 1200 lbs! Haven't you seen the idiots on the roads these days?

I have the Hummer primarily because I need to cargo space for work and I travel a lot during the Winter so the 4wd is a necessity, for what it is it's decent on gas, more importantly I feel much safer driving that compared to blasting down the freeway in a little car ... ever seen one smashed to pieces from an accident? People don't survive .... great to be positive but good to be safe too...imo...