Quote:
Originally Posted by 1948F-1Pickup
I haven't done one in awhile but a road dynamometer will give you the horsepower and rpm curve for an engine and is accurate to 2%.
You need a tachometer and speedometer and in the "olden days," a stopwatch and either someone to write data down or a tape recorder. Today you could use your cell phone to record a video of the tach & speedo.
Obviously you need the car's weight too.
It's nothing more than an acceleration plot of time against "in gear" mph achieved...... and some math.
A running vehicle would also be required....
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You got me thinking and if you enter all the data your phone could compute it for you. It knows yur speed and acceleration so by entering the gear ratio you get the rpm. This app asks for the weight and coefficient of drag which would calculate rear wheel horsepower. Ideally not done on a windy day. I assume there may be better options but here is one demo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHacDcIQDCs