beelsebob wrote:Except, as we've already seen at the Bahrain tests, they do indeed hit much higher speeds thanks to vastly increased torque even at "high" revs, and gearing.
Not entirely sure what that meaningless piece is supposed to mean (congratulations for trying to read around a bit though), but I feel it must be pointed out that the old V8s had for more
power at higher RPM and comparatively less lower down in the band. The current engines have more
power at lower bands and comparatively less higher up so the two meet in the middle....which is how both engines end up with the same power output. Are you suggesting something gets plucked from a parallel universe?
Gearing sacrifices that low end power to make up for what it's missing higher up so the notion that engines are solely contributing to any deviance in straight line speed is well wide of the mark. There's also a comparatively less downforce to take into account as well. Straight line speed is really quite meaningless unless you take into account how fast a car accelerated to a top speed and how long it actually stayed at that top speed.