Does your car feed quick at the moment ?

[J4CKO]

Always felt my 350Z is quick ish but not 300 bhp's worth, came home last night and it felt noticeably quicker, felt like how I thought it should always perform.

am thinking its the weather, but thought that was more with turbos, other option is the previous owner wasn't a speed demon by the looks of it, maybe I have finished running it in, he said it rarely went over 4000 rpm.

[deanogtv]

could be the cold air, my V6 Alfa GTV was a lot more spritly in the colder months when the air temp was cold

[ManFromDelmonte]

I have to say that as I whizzed home on a Boris bike yesterday evening I did feel it was noticeably quicker than normal but I put that down to the pint I'd just finished a bit quickly.

[IanCress]

I can understand why a normally aspirated engine will gain power when it's cold, as the air is more dense (is this right!?). Do turbo charged cars experience a similar gain in performance, given that modern turbo cars limit boost when it gets to a certain level? Or do they give the same performance whatever the temperature?

[Foliage]

Volumetric efficiency is better with the colder denser air of winter


http://www.installuniversity.com/install_universit...

[kambites]

I haven't noticed a difference, but then I haven't really driven it remotely hard since the weather got cold.

I guess your power should increase roughly proportionally to air density which itself is proportional to absolute air temperature, so the difference between 27 Celsius and 0 Celsius will be about 10%?

[Lowtimer]

IanCress said:

I can understand why a normally aspirated engine will gain power when it's cold, as the air is more dense (is this right!?). Do turbo charged cars experience a similar gain in performance, given that modern turbo cars limit boost when it gets to a certain level? Or do they give the same performance whatever the temperature?

Absolutely. Turbos love cold atmospheres. We don't fit intercoolers for nothing, and the cold external air works just the same as an intercooler upgrade.

Also the cold air will help a fast spool-up as well as making the car fundamentally perkier off-boost.

[s m]

It seems to - tyrechirp from 3rd to 4th

[B'stard Child]

Just what exactly do you feed it on

Admittedly one of mine has a strong thirst for Super Unleaded but it only drinks when I let it

[jamieduff1981]

My 2 favourite current cars are both traction limited at legal speeds which is exacerbated in the cold, so any improvement in power gained from cold air is theoretical and inaccessible

[e21Mark]

My old 3 series always seems sensitive to ambient temperature.

[PositronicRay]

No. But that's because it's on axle standsds waiting for some brakes.

I've noticed how smooth engines seem to run in foggy weather, but because of visibility I've not really explored performance though.

[Fastdruid]

Lowtimer said:

IanCress said:

I can understand why a normally aspirated engine will gain power when it's cold, as the air is more dense (is this right!?). Do turbo charged cars experience a similar gain in performance, given that modern turbo cars limit boost when it gets to a certain level? Or do they give the same performance whatever the temperature?

Absolutely. Turbos love cold atmospheres. We don't fit intercoolers for nothing, and the cold external air works just the same as an intercooler upgrade.

Also the cold air will help a fast spool-up as well as making the car fundamentally perkier off-boost.

Certainly in the case of mine the intercooler is a bit under-spec'd (pretty much the first suggested modification) so it feels substantially perkier with both colder external air *and* more cooling to the intercooler.

[PositronicRay]

kambites said:

I haven't noticed a difference, but then I haven't really driven it remotely hard since the weather got cold.

I guess your power should increase roughly proportionally to air density which itself is proportional to absolute air temperature, so the difference between 27 Celsius and 0 Celsius will be about 10%?

Hmmmmmmmmmm 10% you say.

[gfunk]

It had 3 Big Macs in 2.13 mins which is a new record!

[rohrl]

I filled up with the expensive petrol earlier this week so I'm convincing myself that the car feels quicker so I can believe I didn't waste money.

[thatdude]

I sort of maybe notice something with my car, but not really enough to think its true.

My bike on the other hand, being carburetted, does feel more pokey. In the summer, on hot days, it's definatly down on power, and in the winter, on cold days, it's up on power (once it's warmed up enough that there is no icing in the carbs!)

[Daston]

I have noticed my RX7 hitting the fuel cut a couple of times in the cold. Need to upgrade ECU next year as well as all the supporting mods so that it runs better.

[SuperchargedVR6]

J4CKO said:

Always felt my 350Z is quick ish but not 300 bhp's worth, came home last night and it felt noticeably quicker, felt like how I thought it should always perform.

am thinking its the weather, but thought that was more with turbos, other option is the previous owner wasn't a speed demon by the looks of it, maybe I have finished running it in, he said it rarely went over 4000 rpm.

No car I've ever owned, standard or otherwise, has consistently 'felt' like it's delivering it's full compliment of ponies every single time I've driven it. Some days feel meh, other days they feel great. Plus of course with daily drivers, you get used to the power very quickly, and there's wind strength to consider, fuel quality consistency etc, too many variables.

I don't think until full electric arrives will we see consistency. An engine with 1 moving part and not reliant on a volatile air / fuel mix either. Bring it on.

[StottyEvo]

My car was in the garage for a month and when it came back I thought that something was broken because it kept wheel spinning in 1st gear. Thinking about it more the temps dropped a lot over the month and my tyres probably aren't effective at these low temps.