I developed this tool to analyze the dynamics involved in straight-line vehicle acceleration and estimate performance metrics such as 0-60 and 0-100 mph times. By adjusting inputs such as vehicle mass, torque curve, gear ratios, and aerodynamics, user's can see which factors have the greatest impact on performance.
Specify the model parameters to simulate different scenarios. Hover over the tooltip icon for more details on any parameter.
Enter your engine's measured or manufacturer-quoted torque versus RPM data. Double-click any cell to edit its value, or add and remove RPM entries.
Enter each individual gear ratio and the final-drive ratio. The tool automatically computes the total ratio for every gear. Double-click any cell to edit its value, or add and remove gear entries.
In this section, the model advances through a series of predefined speed increments. At each step, it:
By iterating these calculations over all speed increments, the model generates a complete 0-X mph performance curve.
Note: To simplify the computation, the model performs only one iteration of weight-transfer and assumes a rear-wheel-drive configuration, though the same methodology can be adapted for front-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive setups.
In a rear-wheel-drive car, straight-line acceleration can be maxmized through a number a factors. The ones I found most interesting are: