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| | Horsepower loss through drivetrain |
 | | What this means is, to optimize power in an internal combustion engine you try to optimize the amount of “heat” (that is, the power created by internal combustion) to be transferred into the “push” process of the piston. |
 | | But the power measured at the drum DOES decrease, because all the drivetrain components (engine rotating and reciprocating masses, flywheel, trans gears and shafts, driveshaft, rear gears, axles, wheels and tires) all accelerate faster now (but in first gear, the starting and finishing speeds are much less compared to high gear). |
 | | Since it takes power to accelerate mass, the higher driveline component accelerations use up more power in first gear than high gear, and thus the available power at the dyno drum is decreased by the HP "robbed" in the vehicle drivetrain due to the higher driveline component accelerations. |
| www.superstang.com /horsepower.htm (6609 words) |
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