Ford’s electric car engineers go crazy with 1,400hp Mustang Mach-E

Re:Ford’s electric car engineers go crazy with 1,400hp Musta... by jdashg on Tuesday July 21, 2020 @01:55PM (#23909112)

Not at high speeds! Or at least, not in a way that's unique to electric motors. ICEs use multiple gears, but it's a similar overall torque picture. (Try multiplying out ICE torque with its gear ratios some time!)

Torque is k*HP/rpm, whether electric or ICE. If you can slip the wheels you can go faster. It's well known in the supercar world that you can often do a great estimate of top speed based on HP alone, given how aero dominates at speeds above 100mph and these cars aren't wildly more drag-efficient than one-another.

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Re:Ford’s electric car engineers go crazy with 1,400hp Musta... by Retric on Tuesday July 21, 2020 @02:11PM (#23909261)

At high speed you can increase downforce and thus grip at the cost of increased drag. At lower speeds your limited to the tires which are effectively independent of the rest of the car. At high speeds wind resistance eventually dominates so:

Top speed ^3 * cross sectional area * drag coefficient = HP.

Which is why supercars are so low to the ground, having 1/2 the cross section effectively doubles your horsepower. Though that’s assuming the car can handle the forces involved.

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Re:Ford’s electric car engineers go crazy with 1,400hp Musta... by jessriedel on Tuesday July 21, 2020 @06:36PM (#23911714)

At what speed to you expect the Tesla to be engine-power limited rather than traction limited? (I certainly didn't intend anything like 100mph, but I was thinking like ~40mph.)

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