Calculating 0-60 times by interpolating quarter mile times

[DanDombrowski]

Hey guys,

Messing around with some calculations in class today, I wanted to see if I could find my 0-60 times from the data they give you when you run a quarter mile at the track.

I wrote up a word document to make the equations easier to read and to show the graphs. You guys can let me know if I have a problem in my analysis. If anyone wants the excel sheets so you can calculate your own times from your quarter mile data, I can email them to you.

I found that my car does 0 to 60 in approximately 7.6 seconds in 400 feet (with an R-squared value of 0.9999).

[Craig]

15.6 is pretty good for a 525i, I didn't think they'd move like that.

Nice driving.

[digitaldragon03]

yes it is, i thought they were in the high 16 range.

[dangerous100]

mine does standing 1/4 in 14.8 at 95.and 60 in 7 dead.does this work out on your graph?

[632 Regal]

the Regal did:

1.453 60 ft
6.445 1/8 @ 111.66mph
9.997 1/4 @ 135.28

plug them numbers in and see if they work, this is off an old time slip.

ps i dialed a 9.97 but redlighted by .006...figures.

[DanDombrowski]

the Regal did:

1.453 60 ft
6.445 1/8 @ 111.66mph
9.997 1/4 @ 135.28

plug them numbers in and see if they work, this is off an old time slip.

ps i dialed a 9.97 but redlighted by .006...figures.

Well....the curve fit of those points is Y(x) = 32.993 * x ^1.6045 , where x is time in seconds and Y is in feet. Gives a correlation of 1, so it dead fits the points. Taking the derivative, you hit 60 MPH in 2.6 seconds @ 160.9 feet. Its ok though, you probably missed a shift, and it might have been a warm day out :) Better luck next time.

I'm a little concerned that its overestimating trap speeds. At 1/8 mile, it overestimates by about 1-2 MPH, but at 1/4 mile, it overestimates by about 8-9 MPH. This makes it useless beyond 1/8 mile speeds, but below that, its pretty damn close. Of course, the more data you have, the better your estimate.

[DanDombrowski]

Unfortuantely not because the graph is a curve fit of data points taken for my car. With only the 2 points that you gave me (0feet, 0 seconds) and (1320 feet, 14.8 seconds), the best I can do is a linear relationship for your car, which acceleration definitely is not. The best you could get with that data is your average speed over the entire quarter mile. Sorry. If you get more data, its really easy to calculate yourself.

[Craig]

I'm a little concerned that its overestimating trap speeds. At 1/8 mile, it overestimates by about 1-2 MPH, but at 1/4 mile, it overestimates by about 8-9 MPH. This makes it useless beyond 1/8 mile speeds, but below that, its pretty damn close.

Yeah, well it's probably accurate it's just the drag strip that's not. The drag strip averages your speed over the last 60 feet (you probably knew this) rather than measuring the speed as you cross the line, since that's a much easier and cheaper way to do it.

G-Techs have the same problem.

[[1990]525]

can't you just use a stopwatch?
or set your MMPH to 60 and then use the stopwatch function on the module?