I've been thinking about this;

Since acceleration is velocity per second two cars accelerating at the same rate will maintain the same time interval on the road between them. However if one of the cars starts to accelerate before the other one the distance between the two cars will increase even if they are accelerating at the same rate since although the time interval between the cars will remain the same the car that began to accelerate first will always be at a higher speed. As this is the case then the only way to maintain equal distance between cars where the first car has started to accelerate first is for the second car to accelerate at a faster rate.

It would not be unreasonable to assume the BMW here started to accelerate first as it was in front. So if Dave's car kept the same distance between them on the road it's accelerating faster






Of course if the BMW car driver saw Dave approaching when the 964 was already accelerating full bore and then decided to make a race of it, then yeah yer cars knackered mate.

 

In the following scenario we postulate that BMW Dude and Dave's cars have identical acceleration capability.

BMW Dude starts accelerating.

A little later, at time A, Dave decides to overtake BMW Dude.
At that moment, BMW Dude is 100 yards ahead.

Dave floors it, but a few seconds later, at time B, he has dropped to 350 yards behind.

Yet the two cars are identically matched, acceleration wise.

 

I love the graph (although I should point out that you got a pretty good match to BMW Dude, but my car is white!)

Tony is making a valid point. The BMW was ahead of me, and the road was actually dual carriageway from a roundabout - so there is no doubt that he started accelerating before me. I expected to pass him easily - but didn't. However, he wasn't pulling away, so I guess I must have been accelerating faster.

That's the cheapest fix for my car ever!

It's a shame I wasn't actually racing him - if I'd kept my foot down, I have no doubt he would have got left behind as we went the other side of 100mph.

 

I'm glad that's cleared up. ;-)

 

pheeeewwww

 

Don't take the **** - we've just proved that (despite all the money you spent on it) - if I start accelerating before you, I'll leave you for dead!

 

Yep, but you would have to start a loooong time before me....ha ha.....

This thread actually illustrates exactly what I mean when I say 'you won't notice 20hp in real terms' and that I cannot leave another standard 964 for dead in real terms - if all is equal with reaction times then it will be comfortably quicker - but if I nail it 2 seconds after a standard 964 it will take time to overtake.....

 

You only have to watch an F1 race to see this in action, two cars can be 10m apart in a slow turn, but at the end of the turn, the lead car can hit the gas a fraction of a second earlier than the following car and so can turn the 10m lead into 100m in no time at all.

It's all very well having a 30-70 time of 4.8 seconds (or whetever the 964 has), but if the BM starts accelerating 2 seconds before you (with his 30-70 time of, say 6.8 secs) then you'll both hit 70 at the same time. This means you won't even match him for speed until 70mph (ie 964 is losing ground on the BM), before your superior acceleration will finally start to close the gap.

Edited to add that before I sold my 964, I was behind a brand new BMW Z4 3.0i at the lights. He gunned it and I did too, I was with him every step of the way, but just couldn't get any closer until I gave up at 70mph (officer). I guess it would have been different if I had been in front.

 

If the other guy is first on the gas, you CAN make up the difference....
in a 911 TURBO!!
(...and I hear the 964 can be supercharged...)

 

This thread just gets better. It really dose not matter how fast the BMW is in a straitline, I dought it can stay close in the curves. Even if it could how would you tell your friends you drive a station wagon. No matter how much you talk up the car,some one is bound to say ,"Yea, but its a station wagon." What's next a 400 hp minivan. Still at the end of the day you drive a minivan.

 

Ah ha! Well, that's a different problem then ... I believe the Guards Red 964s have a few extra bhp

 

Totally what I was trying to say..

..but not as eloquently as JJBunn said it! JJ, tell me you look like Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski. I just have this mental image


Heres another take: Its 1978, I'm driving my 356 SC (its only 15 years old), and..Jeez, I just got burned by a one of those new BMW 323i's. Tcha!

 

Unhappily not quite as scruffy as the Big L ... although I'm ramping up on my consumption of White Russians to compensate :-)

 

I'm a newbie with a 92 artic grey C2. I only want to add that, for me, the 964, with the spoiler down, sideways, against a black backround, is the most pure, beautiful-looking car I've come across. And it drives like no other car I've ever had. That's why I bought it and want to keep it for a very, very long time.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqtgfjkB6Pg