How fast can a scooter really go? Dyno Data & Sprint Sim....

[Jazzy]

Just read thru this thread and have thoroughly enjoyed the discussion.
On the subject of drag vs power for top speed .
Is there any data from the innocenti record breaking full enclosed scoot.
It would be interesting to see how little power they achived their speed with.

[Darrell Taylor]

Think scootering did a feature on it recently and was approx 120mph in a cigar shaped body with only approx 15bhp from memory

[Jazzy]

So is the next stage of scootering tuning going to be dynamic add ons.
More mph and not mpg?

[mawso]

I used to have this on VHS, been looking on Youtube for it, from around 1997 and has some of the names being mentioned in this thread featured. Not sure if it's a half mile run or quarter? But some good speeds recorded by full frames here on the radar gun...unless it's about as useful as a handheld Iraqi bomb detector?

[slangen]

Thanks for sharing this, love the sound of the Stuart Day bike. Anyone know the spec on that engine? @113.5 mph

[3narf]

This is interesting stuff!

Am I right in thinking rider weight wouldn't have much effect on top speed, but would affect acceleration (f=ma)?

I suppose actual physical size of the rider would be a factor though...

[Darrell Taylor]

thats right,rider weight is a good indicator of the physical size of a person so being tall with wide shoulders will create more wind resistance so more damaging than the weight alone

[Adam_Winstone]

So the perfect sprint body would be small head, narrow shoulders, proportionally bigger belly and skinny legs tapering to even smaller feet... WOW... I'm your man!

[red devil]

I found this thread very interesting as aerodynamics were on the top of my sprinting agenda during the British speed records events from 1981 to 83. First of all I have lots of admiration for Darrell and his team who have produced several wonderfully fast and reliable machines including the two recently featured in" Scootering".
It is a well known fact that aerodynamics play little part in producing a fast quarter mile time on a scooter, it is all down to covering the first 60 feet which gets you a fast time. To do this you need a properly geared powerful motor and a machine and rider that weigh as little as possible these two factors alone will guarantee a quick quarter.
A rider wins a sprint by covering the distance in the shortest possible time not the highest speed, so terminal speeds are irrelevant, however, there is a correlation between time and speed and many riders will have noticed that to cover the quarter in 15secs your terminal speed will be roughly 85mph, do it in 14secs and you will be passing the marker boards at 95mph.
Were aerodynamics do play a major part is during the shootout and top speed events were distances greater than a quarter of a mile are attempted, here terminal speeds of 100mph or greater are the norm and the time taken to cover that distance is not taken into consideration. My own machine in group 6 form covered the flying quarter at Elvington at 96mph in 1981, the following year with exactly the same motor and the frame sporting a full dustbin fairing covered the same distance in 101mph, an improvement of just 5%, which would indicate that streamlining the front of a scooter is only partially successful. I had another go in 1983, once again with the same setup but this time with an improvement to the airflow behind the rider. This included sidepanels and a racing seat from a Yamaha TZ, which improved things as much as the fairing did bumping the top speed up to 106mph.
In the late 1960's super sprinter Fred Willingham had the right idea and developed the sprint kneeler, this had a much reduced frontal area and weighed hardly anything!
This idea has been copied by several sprinters recently including the lads from CamLam who have covered the quarter in 12.7 secs, one the quickest Lambretta I have seen. Of course if your riding a scooter in the street class you really can't do much about aerodynamics but you can reduce plenty of weight, but if your on a competition or top scooter get busy with your angle grinder as there are lots of modifications you can do to improve things!


Hope to see you at some of the sprints this year
Frank.

[drunkmunkey6969]

lol.....brilliant post. Thanks Frank.