Alright guys my friend has a 97 tacoma with the 2.4l 4cyl engine making roughly 142hp at the flywheel. I f we race from a dead stop I can take him by a few truck lenghts. However if we race from a 25+mph roll it is pretty much neck and neck and if we are on the highway he can take from like 65 to 90 by like a half truck lenght. I have 3.31 gears and he has 3.55s so I would think that i could take him on the highway but no. What the hell is wrong here. Sure he weighs less but I have more power than he does. I would believe that this thing would be able to stomp a 4cyl RICE ROCKET.

 

is your truck an auto? mine's a 5 speed and even with the 33" tires it is VERY strong at highway speeds.

 

With his gearing he will have a lower overall top speed but his acceleration will still be better at any speed. And i thing the weight advantage is a big factor, you have a half ton, he has a compact truck. Besides his 4 cyl likes to run at high revs, your engine is made for hauling cargo.

-Jon

 

yes its an auto

 

It's funny that you posted this. I was just discussing this type of thing with a friend of mine today. I'm not sure why this is but I've seen this with all kinds of cars. In high school I would drive my moms 10 yr old, bad compression 351m LTD (2 bbl) and race my friends brand new mustang gt w/auto (185 hp fi). From a stop he'd smoke me but if we were doing 30ish and both stomped it I'd stay on his bumper all the way to 120. I noticed that car & driver started doing 0-60 & 5-60 runs with the 5-60 runs being so much slower. I think once you get the weight of your vehicle moving it takes much less hp to get it going even faster than starting from a dead stop. This would explain why I could get my 78 b210 to keep up with v8s once I was rolling. If you watch nascar you'll see it takes a huge hp difference between you and the next guy just to put him behind you and these cars are very equal when it comes to weight, trans, etc.

 

I believe the weight difference has a lot to do with this. The heavier the vehicle, the more wind resistance it incurs. Your F-150 weighs between 4500 and 5000 lbs (depending on configuration, drive, mods, passengers, cargo, etc.) compared to roughly 3300-3500 for the Tacoma (estimate). So you've got 1500 pounds more, which means you've got almost 50% more wind resistance to fight than he does. At slower speeds, wind resistance isn't so much a factor, and it is negligible from a dead stop. Off the line, it's just gear ratios, tire diameters, torque, tranny type/setup and vehicle weights that play the biggest roles.

Also, what gear are you in when you're driving on the freeway? What gear is he in? If you're in 3rd with an auto, this is the equivalent (usually) to being in 4th with a stick. For most tranny's, the gear ratio for 3rd/4th is 1.00:1. But if you're in OD, and he's in 4th, then there's no comparison. He'll smoke you every time. However, if you're in 3rd, and he's in 5th, and he's still beating you, then you probably need a serious tune up!

 

The power to weight ratio and aero drag will kill you. He also has a stick with less power loss at the wheels.

Park his truck right behind yours and look at the windswept area difference. If I park my wifes car behind the truck it disappears under the tailgate when looking from the front. It is also much sleeker in the nose, so even if I chopped my cab off, she would still have less aero drag...

More mods! My truck is now much stronger at higher speeds, and I also have 3.31s. You may also be starting in a gap which is not a good rev range for your truck. My truck will kick down to first sometimes when it would probably faster if I forced 2nd. It kicks down, revs rise quick and it shifts back almost immediately.

Such is life with an auto. Just make him stop first...

 

his truck isnt a stick its an auto and we both are goin with od off

 

well, youre much heavier than he is so its gonna be hard to beat him with a fairly stock 302 in such a heavy truck. you have the intake already, now you need to open the exhaust part of your engine. get a nice cat-back, maybe some headers, and a shift kit along with some lower gears and then race him again.

 

Wow. My first car was a '74 B210 hatchback, and it's top speed was 75 mph, at best. It also took me 10 minutes to get it that fast.

Take care,
-Chris

 

I have to disaggree with the statment about the heavier vehicle having more wind resistance. Wind resistance is directly related to surface area, NOT weight. For instance, if I had a 4 foot square piece of steel, and a 4 foot square piece of hard plastic, they would both have identical surface areas giving them identical wind resistance in a wind tunnel. Even though the block of steel is significantly heavier than the plastic box.

I am not disagreeing however with the fact that weight makes a difference in a drag race.

 

PKRWUD: I couldn't get the B210 that fast, around 80 was the top as I had a 4 spd manual. I could get my mom's LTD to 115-120, it had a 351. It was pretty hairy at that speed as it floated like a boat.

 

Ford4fun,

Not implying that weight causes wind resistance just saying the smaller truck has the advantage in both. The windswept area of the F150 is massive in comparison to a small import.

So in this case the heavier vehicle does have more wind resistance and loses ground in both areas.. hope my post didn't sound like weight and wind resistance were connected.