Originally Posted by RichardPON
I'm currently having this discussion with someone, and I'm sure there's some physics involved somewhere, but I'll be fucked if I can explain it properly.
We're talking mechanical grip/slip angles/tractive effort etc, and he is claiming that if you take two identical cars one with more power, with the the same weight, tyres, suspension etc - that the more powerful car will be able to corner faster thanks to being able to apply more power post-apex.
I'm trying to limit his argument by suggesting that power aside, the cornering speed is always goverened by the slip angle of the tyre......
What are the physics involved and why?
I beleive you are focusing too much on 1 aspect of cornering. Yes, at the point where Lateral Forces vs Mechanical Grip are at their highest, speed will be the same for both cars. (See "A" on my crappy pic
)
But, as you know, a corner is not about 1 tiny moment, its about the entire process Entry-Apex-Exit .
Ignore the first parts (Braking and trailing throttle up to just before the apex) Its
all about the exit. Thats because both cars in our scenario have the same driver, braking ability, and same mass that needs to change direction. Thus the first part of the corner will be the same for both cars. (Yes I realise the more powerful car will arrive faster but for simplicity, lets assume he can only carry X amount of speed on turn in. So his speed at B1 wil be identical)
Anyway
As turning angle decreases, (straighten up) and the driver starts to pick up the throttle, (hopefully those 2 things are inversely proportional to each other. Sadly not always
) the amount of power the tyres can transmit obviously increases, so as one car can accelerate quicker its the point from the the start of aceleration to B2 that will be a shorter time and thus the crucial factor in getting through the whole corner (B1 to B2) the fastest.
make sense?
