On Wed, 8 Dec 1999, Erik Quackenbush wrote:
> I've been thinking about a chassis dyno for my garage but the $20-30K price
> tag for a DynoJet seems a bit high. Does anyone know of a less expensive
> chassis dyno? I know I can measure hp and torque on the road using a
> recorder and some software but I'm really interested in doing it inside
> where I can easily tweak and rerun.
The DynoJet's are the only chassis dyno's that I'm familiar with, but you
could conceivably construct your own equivalent. I don't think a dynojet
would fit in most home garages anyway, unless you went with a pit (and your
local building code probably won't let you)
We know how a chassis dyno works: the rollers are a known fixed mass and
size. We therefore know how much power it takes to accelerate them at any
given rate (it's pretty straightforward physics). All you do is put a
tachometer on the rollers and log their rpm over time as you accelerate them
with the car.
I guess the big hangup is constructing heavy rollers that aren't a hazard at
high rpm...
-Andy
72 Pantera - Rocky 91 Miata - Steve 96 A4Q - Rudolf
80 928 - Phantom 87 E350XL - Andylance 84 RZ350 - Sting
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