5th Gear - 200mph challenge

[Fen]

Anyone see 5th Gear with the Lotus 200mph challenge? I just watched it on Sky+. Why on earth get Superchips to map the car? No wonder it melted a piston! Anyway, 2 things that amused me were that it sounds very much like my car when Tiff lifts off and that the guy driving the Cossie that actually did 200 was Mark Shead - the Cossie runs the same EMS as mine and Mark mapped mine for me. Note I am NOT suggesting my car will do 200mph - for one thing at the 7,000 rpm redline it would only be doing 184mph even if it could get there.

 

[jez_anderson]

I cant believe they spent nearly £10k on it and only got it to go as fast as it should have in the first place! On top of that there was no labour cost in there so they would have spent more like £20k.

 

[hotblack944]

ORIGINAL: Fen
and Mark mapped mine for me

I knew I'd heard the name before...[] Loved the casual, one hand on the steering wheel blast to 206mph.

 

[Sundeep]

ORIGINAL: Fen

Why on earth get Superchips to map the car? No wonder it melted a piston

LOL !

 

[Big Dave]

Why oh Why did they buy a Lotus in the first place...
They should have known...

Lots Of Trouble Usually Serious......

Thats exactly what they got...

Im sorry but Tiff is starting to Needle me....[][][][][][]

Bring back Jezza....

 

[sawood12]

I was really surprised at the whole lot of them. What a catalogue of disasterous decisions. Firstly they chose a Lotus Esprit as the base car which we all know are as about the most tempremental car going. They then proceeded to nearly double the engine's power without strengthening the engine's already delicate internals or transmission and managed to blow the engine on the first high speed run. They then realised that they might just need to pay some attention to aerodynamics and remove that dining room table of a spoiler. They then proceeded to rebuild the engine with stock parts!! Following another high speed run they realised that they had a knackered clutch so what did they do? In one ludicrous impulsive move they went and added Nitrous and low and behold the engine went bang again. £30k down the drain. What a bunch of ametuers. That has cemented it for me now, I had already thought the show had gone to the wall with the appaling and utterly painful copy of the Top Gear format, but this has just highlighted to me that none of them on that show have a clue. It is now removed from my Sky+ series link!!

There, I feel so much better now!

I think Evo are doing a much more interesting project with their 8 minute Nurburgring attempt and seem to be taking a much more informed route to modifying the car.

 

[sawood12]

I was thinking about this earlier today. What would you have to do to get a 944 to break the 200mph barrier? Obviously the multitude of engine mods often discussed on this forum would be required but what about the gearbox to get the ratios? would it be possible to mod the engine to get it upto 8k rpm (bigger bearings, lighter reciprocating parts) and I suppose you would have to loose the door mirrors, windscreen wipers and tailgate spoilers and use a bit of gaffer tape on the panel gaps to minimise drag? Would it be possible to get an N/A 944 over 200mph whilst retaining the bulk of the original engine (i.e. not taking the easy option and replacing with a V8)?

 

[Guest]

ORIGINAL: sawood12

Would it be possible to get an N/A 944 over 200mph whilst retaining the bulk of the original engine (i.e. not taking the easy option and replacing with a V8)?

No....


Funny performance bikes are doing a project, but they are aiming at 250mph..... On a budget of probably less then £20k. Turbo Hayabusa. About 700bhp. Funny, they couldent even get 500bhp out of the v8 turbo lotus engine.

As has been said, what a joke the whole project was. There are any number of cars out there that would have been better to use, i bet the guy who sold them the Lotus in the first place is pi55ing himself.

What the heck did they use pooperchips for, even my wife knows they are dire!!!!

I am pretty sure that a 944T with lighter conrods/pistons, turbo mods etc with raised rev limit and slightly different grearing would have a good crack at 200mph, it would probably require about 500bhp @ 7500rpm, probably not easy to achieve. But a dame site easier than a Lotus.

 

[Guest]

Normally aspirated 944, I can't see that you'll get enough power out of it, at least not running on petrol.
A Turbo stands a chance, although you'd need a bigger turbo, some intercooler arrangement, more/bigger injectors, bigger bore exhaust, modified inlet and throttle, new air filter arrangement, if you wanted it to be reliable and done properly (in keeping with the Porsche badge).
The gearbox, clutch and transmission might not like it though.
You might also have an issue with the engine mountings.
How long it will last is unknown.

You might also need to look at the aerodynamics, since you want it to handle reasonably well, plus you might like to upgrade the brakes.

 

[Fen]

ORIGINAL: Stuart Martin

Normally aspirated 944, I can't see that you'll get enough power out of it, at least not running on petrol.
A Turbo stands a chance, although you'd need a bigger turbo, some intercooler arrangement, more/bigger injectors, bigger bore exhaust, modified inlet and throttle, new air filter arrangement, if you wanted it to be reliable and done properly (in keeping with the Porsche badge).
The gearbox, clutch and transmission might not like it though.
You might also have an issue with the engine mountings.
How long it will last is unknown.

You might also need to look at the aerodynamics, since you want it to handle reasonably well, plus you might like to upgrade the brakes.

That pretty much describes my car apart from gearbox/transmission mods, but I don't see why they would struggle. The gearing isn't high enough to hit 200 though. By my calculations it would need to hit just over 7,600 rpm but I'm sure it won't.

I'm prepared to make this offer though - if anyone knows of a v-max day I'm prepared to go along and in the unlikely event my car gets to 7,000 rpm in top (184mph) with any runway spare then I will raise the rev limit to 7,800 and give it one run with eagle eyes on the AFR gauge. I don't think 7,800 will be too much for a balanced bottom end one time so long as the fuelling stays rich enough and I'd be prepared to take the chance to have the first 200mph 944. Of course I do not for a second believe it will hit even 184...

For the record I have seen it maxed at 162 (by gps) when it was standard with nominally 250bhp. Anyone who knows sums care to calculate the power it would need to drive the same car another 38mph faster?

 

[Fen]

I Googled. Based on a rough estimate that a 1% increase in speed requires a 3% increas in power it would take 426bhp to push my Turbo to 200mph. When it's been remapped after the AFPR fitment (and it has good suspension bushes again [8|]) I might be in with a shout...

That sounds low though and I can only guess my Googling came up with duff info of the 944 is pretty slippery.

 

[Michael Downing]

ORIGINAL: Fen
For the record I have seen it maxed at 162 (by gps) when it was standard with nominally 250bhp. Anyone who knows sums care to calculate the power it would need to drive the same car another 38mph faster?

AFAIK, wind resistance is proportional to speed squared. So, ignoring everything else*, you would need a smidgen over 381 bhp to hit 200mph.

---------------------------------------
*and thereby rendering the sums completely useless...

 

[Guest]

Air resistance is proportional to speed squared, but that means that power is proportional to velocity cubed (remember, power is proportial to force * speed (the old torque vs power debate)). Giving us a more likely sounding 470bhp for a 200mph 944T.

Tom

 

[sawood12]

On the basis the Sierra Cosworth managed 206mph with a 2ltr engine and the aerodynamics of a house brick it should be easy for a 944 with it's shape that is aerodynamic even by today's standards and 2.5ltr engine.

 

[Mark_Bennett]

On the basis the Sierra Cosworth managed 206mph with a 2ltr engine and the aerodynamics of a house brick it should be easy for a 944 with it's shape that is aerodynamic even by today's standards and 2.5ltr engine.

You might be suprised...

The standard Sierra when launched (ok - the hatchback one) had a Cd (Coefficient of drag) of 0.340. The evolution of the model over the years is bound to have improved that, and even if it did not...

...the Cd of the 944 Turbo is 0.330 !

So pretty darn similar!

The real deal is CdA, which takes the Coefficient of drag and multiplies by the frontal area, but I haven't the willpower right now ([])

 

[Guest]

Time to bring out the comedey pic again.
Also to say something about the Vikki B. Henderson thing when she tried to reach 200mph in an Aston ??? Got to 180mph and ran out of track. At the rate of acceleration it would of needed another mile or so of track.
I would like to see Fen go for the record, what an event. Like Evil Knevil (sp) or Eddy the Eagle, we need heroes!

 

[Mark_Bennett]

I like the Le Mans camping permit still in the screen[]
(Nothing'll shift it! [&:])

 

[hothatch2002]

Trying to get a Lotus past 200 mph - it is so easy!

Just drop it out of the back of plane tied to a rather large piece of aerodynamic lead - about 5 tons should do the trick. Car would probably be worth about the same value as the one those chimps have messed around with on 5th Gear.

They should change the name from 5th Gear to Wrong Gear!! It really is dismal.

 

[sawood12]

The Sierra Cosworth Hatchback may have a CD of 0.34 but the one on 5th Gear was a Sapphire which would have a much worse CD. And it still had the daft boot spoiler and wing mirrors attached and the engine was driving a power-sapping 4-wheel drive transmission. The more I think about it the easier it seems - provided you've got the time and money to spend on such a project!! If all else fails you could always transplant the engine from a Cossie into the 944.

VBH was clearly cra**ing herself when she attempted the high speed runs in the Aston, I reckon she bottled it. It certainly wasn't the casual single handed stylee adopted by Mark Shead in the Cossie.

 

[Mark_Bennett]

OK. I've just --> looked it up. <--

The drag coefficient of a 1987 Ford Sierra Sapphire RS Cosworth is...

0.330 !

Oh yes! Coincidence or what?!