What’s the cheapest way to build a car with 1000bhp per ton?
Discussion
Cheapest way is going to be going as lightweight as possible. Think Caterham R500 but with something with more powaah. Whether anything with that much power will be driveable is another question of course.
Or you could buy a Panigale V4. Take off the mirrors, lights and number plate etc and you'll be well over. That said, i've been riding bikes for 21 years and I wouldn't want to take one of those around Cadwell Park, even with all the electronics.
Or you could buy a Panigale V4. Take off the mirrors, lights and number plate etc and you'll be well over. That said, i've been riding bikes for 21 years and I wouldn't want to take one of those around Cadwell Park, even with all the electronics.
Something light. It's easier to get 500bhp in a 500kg car than 1000bhp in a one tonne car. Max_Torque said:
As i said up there^^ it'll be relatively easy to do for short periods with a Tesla based powertrain. P100D ludicrous mode is limited to 605 bhp by battery durab limits, so if you sack those off, then you've got at least the motor rated power of 762 bhp (combined Front + Rear), so you need a vehicle that weighs less than 750 kg,which ought not to be too difficult with a lightweight space frame and the smallest battery you dare fit. Likely to be far more reliable, and way quicker round a circuit than any highly boosted ICE powertrain (but top speed and duration limited)
Are Tesla battery packs divisible? Could you take a road car Tesla battery and divide it into, say, four, and make them removable/swappable?
Then you could have, say, 60kWh with you, but only carry 15 at a time.
If I were just looking for the magic number and nothing else, I'd go down the route of something like a Robin Hood 7 replica with a full house turbocharged Zetec, and a Borg Warner T5 gearbox. Car, engine and box could be had secondhand for £6k between them without too much effort, and would physically fit together relatively easily as the RH is designed for the Pinto engine, and you can buy parts off the shelf to convert a Pinto installation to a Zetec. It would then be a case of throwing the necessary cash at the engine to get it up to the 550-600 odd bhp needed.
I reckon if you did the fabrication and the mechanical work yourself, and you bought your bits wisely secondhand, you could potentially have something running and driving (of a fashion) for around £10k.
Probably would be rubbish and completely undriveable, but it would hit (or be very close to) the number. Just before it hit the tree
Of course, you could just aim for 300 bhp and have something still ridiculously fast, but massively cheaper still, and which would probably be better to drive.
I reckon if you did the fabrication and the mechanical work yourself, and you bought your bits wisely secondhand, you could potentially have something running and driving (of a fashion) for around £10k.
Probably would be rubbish and completely undriveable, but it would hit (or be very close to) the number. Just before it hit the tree
Of course, you could just aim for 300 bhp and have something still ridiculously fast, but massively cheaper still, and which would probably be better to drive.
Krikkit said:
A ludicrously boosted Evo or Impreza would probably fit the bill, how reliable it'd be is another matter... What's a super silly power Evo run at these days?
Definitely won't fit into the price bracket. Mine is only just over 500 bhp and that took a considerable amount of money. You can look at spending the same again if not more to double the power. Then you would still be miles off as they are not super light. Mine is standard body/ interior but still about 1300kg. so only about 385bhp/t. As it is its a bit lethal on many country roads, ok on the wider smoother ones but a big handful on the fun stuff.
To get an Evo/Scoob to 1000bhp/t you will have to build something like / better than the blummin Gobstoppers so talking well into the £100k+ bracket.
Will also have to consider the chassis as much as the drivetrain. My friend had a 550bhp Corsa so approx. 610bhp/t and yeah it was savage in a straight line but trying to hassle it around a track was a nightmare. he is considerably quicker around the same track in a standard m3 (about 260bhp/t)
The only way I can see to do it without going for mega money is a kit car or similar keeping the weight below 500kg and power at 500bhp. but still will be a handful and probably slower than something with half the power unless you get a hell of a chassis under it
Have you driven anything with that much power on track? My friend's car is 560bhp per ton and can be described as brutal, much faster and I do not think driving it would be fun. It turns tracks into a series of back to back corners as the driver work rate is so high.
But back on topic, the first question I would ask is can you keep the drivetrain cool enough under load to do more than a few laps at a time? Everyone likes different things but I am constantly confused on track days at the high powered cars that are constantly in the pits with bonnets open waiting for things to cool.
But back on topic, the first question I would ask is can you keep the drivetrain cool enough under load to do more than a few laps at a time? Everyone likes different things but I am constantly confused on track days at the high powered cars that are constantly in the pits with bonnets open waiting for things to cool.
clarkey said:
I have a Caterham 620R with 310bhp and nearly 600bhp/tonne. I guess it might be possible to lose some weight and give it another 200bhp or so, but having driven this, I'm not sure it's necessary!!
^This.The cheapest way of getting a serious 1000hp/tonne track day capable is to just buy a top of the range Ultima with the 1020hp LS engine option, which equates to 1050hp/tonne.
It will work.
Any other options involving self build shed/garage bodgery most likely will not work in one or more of many possible ways.
You might be able to build a decent Cobra rep with a similar blown LS motor for a lot less, that might squeeze in around the 1 tonne mark, but it would be quite hairy and require a wheelbarrow for the very large testicles needed to drive it
the_stoat said:
Have you driven anything with that much power on track? My friend's car is 560bhp per ton and can be described as brutal, much faster and I do not think driving it would be fun. It turns tracks into a series of back to back corners as the driver work rate is so high
As has been discussed already, there's a lot more to enjoyment of a car than power; especially on a race track. However, I guess that's against the spirit of the thread.The other thing worth considering is that there's more to lap times than power. A lot more. For example, a Formula Renault with 200bhp and 500kg (400bhp/tonne) can lap Silverstone GP circuit in under 2 minutes without too much trouble (lap record is about 1min57s I think). That's a full 20-30 seconds a lap quicker than a very serious supercar like a P1 or a trackday special such as a 2-Eleven, 620R etc. It's also several seconds quicker than a Moto GP bike with a power to weight ratio well over the OP's stated 1000bhp/tonne. Even a Formula Ford, with zero downforce and a Fiesta engine, can lap most circuits quicker than anything road legal. It's simply not necessary to have a mega power to weight ratio to go fast. There are huge leaps forward in braking and cornering to be gained from a car by making clever mods - leaps worth far more than chasing power to weight (and cheaper too). I mention this because on the road where you can't carry corner speed or commit to corners these facts of physics get lost somewhat. On the road, power to weight ratio means more. On the track, less so.
Equus said:
RobM77 said:
Dax do a 4WD Rush, or at least they used to.
Dax/DJ Sportscars no longer exists - the Dax Cobra is now manufactured by JK Sportscars Ltd., but they don't have the rights to the Rush, and it has been out of production for several years.WCZ said:
aeropilot said:
The cheapest way of getting a serious 1000hp/tonne track day capable is to just buy a top of the range Ultima with the 1020hp LS engine option, which equates to 1050hp/tonne.
It will work.
yep, it'll take you a lifetime to master it too - insane cars.It will work.
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