That is significantly high (3600 metres), many ski resorts are lower than that at their highest.
As a long-time skier with excellent altitude tolerance and good fitness I still feel the lack of oxygen at that sort of height.
For example, walking up the last few flights of steps to the Klein Matterhorn observation platform makes all of us pretty puffed - very dry and not much performance! One has to remember to breath 50% extra, it’s not automatic! Going up those steps is much, much more effort than standing still on a pair of planks at 30mph on the way back down.
If nothing else- racing aside - this shows what a waste of time and money it is messing about with cold air intakes, third party air filters, and noise-abuse exhausts in the hope of a tiny power increase. Let alone water injection.
I live less than 100 metres ASL. A couple of years ago we must have driven enthusiastically, fully loaded, in our 1.5 over at least half a dozen Alpine passes between 2000-3000 metres ASL. I completely failed to register what must have been a 20-25% drop in power.
This also suggests that the apparent extra performance in damp/cold air, and the improvement I always notice after giving the car a good clean, might also be mostly in the mind!
Most of the time we only use maybe 5 to 30bhp in normal motoring. Think how little throttle is needed around town or cruising legally on the motorway with a modern slippery car.
The higher power levels are only needed when climbing steeply or accelerating a heavy car or travelling exceedingly fast.
Fast? The Drag power equation shows that power required goes up as the cube of the velocity, ie twice as fast needs eight times the power.
However if you can reduce the drag coefficient (Cd) or frontal area (A) then there is an equivalent linear reduction in power needed.
This is most easily demonstrated with distance swimming, where technique and streamline is everything!
Absolutely. Keep the 1.5 under 2,500 rpm and it’s barely a 50bhp car, even at full throttle.
The very situation, after every hairpin
I was about to say that’s the square, but of course that’s the drag force. Doing four times the work in half the time makes eight times the work rate. Happy to be corrected. I’m right back in the fourth form.
To use the old Rolls Royce terminology, when power is “adequate” then the number doesn’t matter anyway!
