Elapsed Time Compares to Car Length

[Derby Monkey]

Does anyone know how a change in elapsed time effects the distance of change in a race?

In other words... If you run a two car race and its a dead heat. If I manage to improve my time by 0.1 seconds before we race again... considering its against the exact same car who made no adjustments. How would that relate to the distance between the two cars now on a 40 ft track?

So, If I improve my time by 0.1 second will that give me and extra car length lead on a 40 ft track with all else being equal.?

[ProQuest]

Some of the physicists in the group can speak to this far better than I. But I'd hazard a guess that .1 seconds translate into more like 3 full car lengths. In pure stock a .035 second difference is closer to one car length.

You can get a feel for the differences between times by watching the video and noting the times of each car. The results of the January 08 races are formatted in a way that makes doing this very easy.

Hope this helps.

ProQuest/Steve H.

[DrT1010]

.01 = approximately 1.5" at finish.

[Gravity Steve]

drt10102 said:

.01 = approximately 1.5" at finish.

This is REAL close to my excel spreadsheet calculation...not to say that mine is perfect. I get 20 milliseconds equals about 1/2 a car length. This is based on a 42-foot aluminum track, with our times at about 3.01 seconds for the winners.