Lateral accel?

jeffbottman · 12-20-2013, 03:24 PM

We all know how our older cars stack up for top speed and acceleration. Any idea of what a stock '80s 911, properly aligned, balanced, with modern summer tires, would do for skidpad lateral acceleration?

What got me thinking about this was looking at the back-of-magazine table in Road and Track, where I noticed the 911 GT3 posted 1.13 G, which by the way was .1 G better than any other car in the table!

Flieger · Flieger's Garage

This doesn't help you much, but 911 race cars can do about 1.5 max

"Friction Circle"

Jp-oh · Jp-oh's Garage

Car and Driver tested a 3.2 at 0.80 G on the skidpad.

84 Carrera Car-and-Driver Test

Trackrash · Trackrash's Garage

It has a lot to do with the tires. According to my G-tech my car was doing 1 g sustained and would spike to 1.2 while autocrossing. That was with 205 and 225-16 Toyo RA-1s. Now with my Khumos it's more like 1.2 sustained.

Carguy59 · Carguy59's Garage

Yeah, I think I pulled 1.4 with my car 225 on front and 275 on rear, 15s all around.

Bob Kontak · Bob Kontak's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jp-oh

Car and Driver tested a 3.2 at 0.80 G on the skidpad.

Thanks for that info, Jp-oh. Love those old write-ups.

That car sits pretty high.

Also, modern summer tires alone would have to be worth a tenth vs whatever they had in the way back,

Jp-oh · Jp-oh's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Kontak

Thanks for that info, Jp-oh. Love those old write-ups.

That car sits pretty high.

Also, modern summer tires alone would have to be worth a tenth vs whatever they had in the way back,

I get a kick out of them too. I bet you could get more than a tenth out of modern ultra high perf summers.

I find their eye--popping amazement at the speed pretty interesting too. It makes you realize just how easily fast modern cars are. I've a friend with a new A8L and it is, by any objective standard, fast in a straight line. Like crush my carrera by many many car lengths in the quarter, like 4.2 sec to 60. It's a 4500+ lb limo for chrissak es. Transmissions with eleventy billion speeds and launch control etc. very democratizing.

I've driven lots of modern fast cars but also remember my girlfriend's 1st gen NA MR2 feeling really really quick. It was form exactly the same era as the 3.2.

Ps I don't have an actual point here.. The end.