Power Reserve Meters

[mrmr96]

Some very high end cars (Bently, Rolls Royce type) have "Power Reserve" meters, measured in "%". What is the purpose of these? How does a driver make use of them? Are they to do with making the ride smoother for passengers somehow? Surely not just for gloating about the excess capacity of the engine?! haha! So, any ideas?

Cheers

[mrmr96]

Slow said:

Isnt it just a backwards rev counter?

No, power doesn't work like that. (E.g. at the same revs your power output depends on the throttle position. So at W.O.T. your power reserve will be zero, but your revs will change as the car accelerates.)

It's more like a backwards throttle meter (I think).

[mrmr96]

talksthetalk said:

So basically it measures the distance between the accelerator pedal and the sheepskin rug?

Sort of, but I don't think power is linear to throttle (butterfly) position so it's also unlikely to be linear to throttle (pedal) position either.