The Ever Falling Hp Of The Elio.... :(

wheaters said:

An Elio will have just under a third of the hp of a BMW 3 series saloon. It will weigh just over a third as much. The hp/mass will be similar. The acceleration will be perfectly acceptable for most owners.

My Liege weighs around 500 kgs. I drove it 130 miles to and from an off road trial, not in any particular hurry. My son followed me in his BMW 2.3 litre coupe. He told me he was driving as fast as he dared on corners and I was easily leaving him behind on anything but the motorway.

Also a few years ago our little cars took part in a 6 hour endurance event at Mallory Park race circuit. We had the lowest powered cars out of 26 teams and beat all the other home built cars. We also beat a team which comprised replicas of an AC Cobra and a Lola T70. Both had 6 litre V8, 500hp engines. My car has about 45hp!

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Adamant said:

I hope the Elio is really quick. I think the weight will assit that. I just hope the lack of power steering isn't an issue.

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WilliamH said:

........"I just hope the lack of power steering isn't an issue"........
I'm 71 and still drive a '69 M35A2 from time to time. You might know it as a 10 wheeled military cargo truck.
If you need power steering for the Elio you have other issues.

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bowers baldwin said:

Duce and a half driver eh, cool, always wanted one, would suck up the whole driveway though. I would want the cut down version for easier parking in town.

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Adamant said:

My current 4 banger does this and I've heard of a lot of vehicles suffering from this, but I hope the Elio doesn't have a dip in power along the HP band when accelerating. Like in my car, it's really quick off the line, but when you get to a certain point, a chunk of the power band just feels gutless. Then when you get to a certain point, the power returns. I hope the Elio is smooth all the way throughout.

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carzes said:

Yes and no. Sorry guys but I have to indulge my inner nerd a bit.
Aerodynamics is essentially referring to air resistance, which is a function of a number of constants in this case with the prime variable being velocity relative to air. A 50% change in velocity will result in a change in air resistance by a factor of about 2.25. However, this is not affected by rate of change in velocity. In other words, if you want to increase speed you'll have to committ the necessary force to overcome increased drag no matter how long it takes to increase speed. Acceleration then is reduced to a simple matter of force exerted on mass resulting in change in velocity. So I guess the difference would be; after overcoming the increase in drag, which has more surplus power to apply to acceleration of it's given mass.

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