Would a 335d on the moon beat a Veyron on earth?
 

Assuming said car 335d was on the moon and had access to

a) a road
b) oxygen

Given the difference is air resistance, weight, etc, could it, could it outperform a Veyron....

Just the cost of getting it there would surpass the purchase price of a Veyron! I am guessing no.

I'd say no since I believe it would have extreme traction issues in a low gravity environment.

The car on the moon would also produce far less downforce from aerodynamic aids if there were any turns in the course.

Even in a drag race, I think the 335 would be screwed.

You bring up an interesting idea though- moon racing. All the dynamics would be vastly different. You could have some awesome elevation changes on the craters, and there might be instances where leaving the ground would be beneficial.

Top speed, or acceleration?

The mass on the moon would be the same, give or take, as the mass on Earth. The reduced weight would only cause traction problems, it wouldn't have any other effect on the acceleration. The reduced aero drag would only be a factor if the 335 had gearing tall enough to outrun the Veyron. The Veyron would spank the 335 in acceleration.

JR

Gearing limitations...even with zero drag.

Newton's first law of physics. A body at rest will remain at rest or a body in motion will continue in motion unchanged unless a force acts upon the bodies.

The law above applies to mass, not weight. So the reduced gravity of the moon won't affect that law. The reduced weight will reduce the amount of friction, which means the tires will be able to apply less force. The 335d would be a tire smoking dog on the moon (assuming there was enough friction to build enough heat to smoke the tires).

If the first law were different on the moon, then the thing would get knocked out of orbit by the first decent rock to smack it.

Geez Steve, you're starting to sound like me on this bored!

Isn't that what I just said?

JR

:confused: No, this is what you just said.


:D j/k

Yes, I felt like that was what you were getting at, but I wasn't sure if there was enough detail for the original poster to get the cause.

I wonder if you could extrapolate anything from this information here on the original Lunar Rover? Looks like driving on the moon is a lot like driving on snow here on Earth.

The Apollo 15 Lunar Rover on the Moon

They'd both get smoked by the original Moon Car
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1254854145.jpg

Assuming a 335d weighs around 3200 pounds it would weigh about 530 pounds on the moon. It would be like racing a 265hp ATV against a Veyron, I think it would be difficult without AWD.

The 335d would still get better fuel mileage. :D

No, the error in your logic is the problem most folks get into that they use weight and mass synonymously, which is sort of OK here on the earth, but a big No-No anywhere else.

The mass of a 3200 pound car on the moon is exactly the same as it's mass here on the earth. So you've got the same amount on inertia to overcome (acceleration) but since the car only weighs 1/4th as much, you've got 1/4th the traction. Accelerating in a car on the moon would be like taking a car with summer tires and trying to accelerate on snow or ice.

Correct. The 335 will still only go 0-60 in 6 second (or whatever) no matter what planet it's on. If there's enough gear, it'll have a higher top speed (almost no wind resistance), but you'd still be stuck at whatever redline in 6th gear is (5th gear?).

the power / weight thing is something that i suspected would get messy.

what about the fact that the quad turbos wouldn't be as efficient? i guess they would work the same however if the ratios of air were equal. if we are providing air to the cars then then it would be the same correct?

or maybe even if the air was there, the pressure would be more disastrous for the veyron....

I think the assumptions are, the engines are provided what they need to work the same as they do here. The "problem" to be overcome is one of reduced gravity and wind resistance (which would come way down the line).

The really big problem (assuming the engines are fine) is the minimal traction on the moon. It'd be like drag racing in snow.

It's not really power to weight. Here on the earth, we can use that because the weight of any mass, pretty much anywhere is close enough to the same for it to not matter. The real term should be power to mass, and that means that the power to mass is the same no matter what planet you're on. That means that if you drop a car on 3 different planets of 3 different gravitational pulls, you'll have the same power to weight (mass) but different traction levels because of the different weights.