Ok.
I have questioned the vipers top speed for a while. I did some research yesterday and found some very interesting things. First Dodge and everone who test the viper says it's top speed is about 190. People on the forums talk about it making trips to 199 ungoverned. I have only found facts pointing towards the viper having a rev limiter but not governed. So I look a little deeper in this whole mess. First I used a control car. The new ZO6. I picked that car because it has been tested by everybody and their brother. It top out at 198. It has about 505 hp with a drag coefficient of .34(now keep this in mind .34cd). Understanding that at 190 mph a car needs 5 hp to go 1mph faster; a picture starts to be painted. If the ZO6 wants to hit 200mph it needs about 515 hp. Ok very good example. Now the viper. IT is said that it could do 199, well that would seem to add up at first. ZO6 does 198, the viper has about 510 hp, 1mph =5hp. IT seems like that could happen, but wait Oh, do you remember that drag thing I was talking about. Well the vipers CD is .39, and with some math tricks I came to a top speed sum of 189 for the viper. That is 1mph slower than anything I have seen before so I thought my math was a little shady. Until I found a website by a guy that said his viper would do 189 and some change. It all started to make sense. 189.758946887 is rounded to 190 and everyone is happy to print that. SO what I'm saying is that the viper is drag limited to 190. Yeah you could get a stock one to do 199 but you would have to push out the back of a cargo plane.
formulas I used; Cd=D/rA*v^2/2
Aerodynamic drag= 1/2D*A*v^2
I picked the ZO6 as a control because of the 198 top speed. You can use any car in these equation you juat need to know the drag coefficient.

 

interesting....but i don't understand where you came up with the thing about 5hp to go 1mph faster @ 190mph....doesn't make sense to me...??

 

Biased reseach leads to biased results. True story.

Alot of other factors play into the equation, one's you can't account for...



-Matt-

 

well, i was thinking that the it tops out at 5th but, it stays the same at 6th, right? but with all of this hp and torque going 190@200RPM, couldn't you take of the limiters and governors and top out higher than 200mph?well, i would probably guess you can go 215mph@5500RPM or so, the viper engine can handle it can't it? like i said, it's possible, no flaming on this plz

 

NO emotions in that...just numbers.....you don't have to believe me thats why I put the formulas on the post try it for yourself. Oh and yes you can account for just about everything.

 

Thats a rate of change formula. The math involved is somewhat thick, but I'll try to find a ready to use equation so you can try it for yourself. Give me a couple days on that....

 

equations hurt my head lol, im just in pre-al (7th)

 

Not in the equation you offered, but yes you can account for almost everything. I'll check your equation out later, got to go



-Matt-

 

OK
I have a ready to use equation here
Try 8.702E-6*CD*A*V^3
8.072E-6 is just a constant, CD is drag coefficient, A is frontal area,V is the speed you want to reach to 3rd power
One thing; when it gives you a number thats the rear wheel hp. So you also have to try to find % of loss.
Ok in case of the viper 8.702E-6*.39*19.3*199^3=516.179 rear wheel horsepower
the stock viper has about 510 and I assume about 10% lost to drive train=459 rwhp
So the viper needs an extra 57hp to hit 199. I was 7 hp off from my post, but I guess thats not too bad. The only thing I'm 100% sure on is the hp lost from the powertrain.

 

Hmm...your math does math sense. What is the .39 drag coefficient from, I can't remember off the top of my mind. I'm assuming it's the SRT-10 coupe?


-Matt-