30-70 mph in 3rd Gear Times . . . What Are Yours?

[x29Saab]

Using Mountain Chips V4.5. Here are my results. The procedure I used was to hold 30 mph in 3rd for about 10 seconds then hit the timer and accelerator at the same time until 70 mph. Elevation 2024 feet, Temperature
63 degrees f, humidity high.

Limp Home Mode = 10.6 seconds
Standard = 9.2 seconds
Kilimanjaro = 8.6 seconds
Everest = 8.2 seconds
Elysium = 8.0 seconds

This is with an otherwise stock California Spec Elan. How do your results compare?

[x29Saab]

BTW I used the Speedometer as my measuring stick as well as a digital watch.

[x29Saab]

PASSENGER AFFECTS:
As I reported earlier, my first test with the Elysium V4.5 resulted in an 8.0 second 30-70 time. In that test, I had a passenger and a few odds and ends in the trunk (boot). This time with no passengers or stuff in the boot using the same procedure:

Elysium = 7.6 seconds or 0.4 second difference

TRANSIENT RESPONSE AFFECTS:
Next I hit the throttle early at 20 mph and recorded the time to go from 30 mph to 70 mph in third gear (again no passenger):

Elysium = 7.1 seconds or 0.5 second difference

I was a tenth slow stopping the timer on this last test so really it would have been almost exactly 7.0 seconds. This is a full second faster than the magazines tested the Elan back in the 1990's. Pretty good for a 15 minute [For me 45 minute ] and inexpensive upgrade. Thank you ESM!

Conditions were:
Elevation = 2024 feet
Temperature = 65 degrees f
Humidity = 50%

[ESM]

For the record I found the 3rd gear 30-70mph in the Brooklands Road test book for the Elan (Autocar & Motor review 4th July 1990) at 8.2s. It actually the sum of the 30-50mph at 4.2s & the 50-70mph at 4.0s ( each in 3rd). Whether these values were from started a steady state speed or part of a continuous run isn't stated. I could find only through the gears 30 to 70mph times in the other reviews.

[x29Saab]

I have been giving this some thought as well as to whether or not the testers were steady state or a runup to 30mph in third gear. In my searching after reading the last post I found an article called Sea Front Strikers (Hokey name . . . Hey its from the nineties) where they did the 30-70 test.

They stated the following:

30-70 through gears (sec) 5.6
0-30 2.7
0-40 3.9
0-50 5.2
0-60 6.5
0-70 8.3
0-80 10.4
0-90 13.2
0-100 17.1

Taking the 0-70 (8.3) subtracted from the 0-30 (2.7) results in the stated 5.6 second 30-70 time "through gears". The authors intent for this portion of their test was definitely not steady state but a runup. They go on in the listed test results with the following:

Acceleration through gears 3rd/4th/5th (sec)
30-50 4.2/6.4/9.5
40-60 3.9/5.8/8.3
50-70 3.8/5.6/7.5
60-80 4.1/5.5/7.8

So looking at 60-80 at 4.1 seconds, one would be able to deduce that the Elan in the "through gears" test would also be in third during this period of time (2nd being only good to about 63 mph). Taking the 0-80 (10.4) subtracted from the 0-60 (6.5) would net 3.9 seconds. A small 0.2 second difference. My feeling is that if the 60-80 test in 3rd started at steady state 60 mph, the turbo lag going from this state to wide open throttle (See ESM's boost maps showing no boost below 25% throttle for the standard chip) should be greater than the 0.2 seconds assuming a gear change is not happening after 60 mph is hit.

Even More convincing, in my opinion, is another article from Road Test Lotus Elan SE. In this article, it does a very similar layout of tests. The difference is that it also gives 2nd through 5th gear times.

In the 40-60 for both through gears and 2nd gear acceleration the result is 2.8 seconds (no lag, no difference and no gear change). It can be determined that the second to third gear change happened after 60 mph in the through the gears test (60-80 4.4 sec [Dude wanted a good 0-60 time and changed to third late]) in comparison to third gear only acceleration (60-80 4.1 sec), and a comparison of 70-90 resulted in only a 0.1 second difference.

My results show that the "lag" of steady state from 30-70 versus runup is between 0.5 and 0.6 seconds (7.6 seconds versus 7.1 seconds) and that the "lag" difference is even larger than this in the original factory setup. I am going to make the assumption that most of this lag is taken up during the steady state started run from 30-50 mph and should have reached a boost steady state by 50 mph. The biggest potential "lag" in the testing of the 3rd gear runs for an acceleration of 20 mph is 0.2 seconds with most of the tests showing nominally zero. This leads me to believe that they achieved the results they did by punching the throttle somewhere below 30 mph keeping it pegged until they ran out of room at 90 mph went home and tabulated the results.

Uhh . . . I have way too much time on my hands . . . maybe I should be playing with the Lotus instead.

I think I should have just said this . . . people are generally lazy. In one of the tests, they checked acceleration in 2nd through 5th gears and created a matrix of 29 interlaced times ie. 10-30, 20-40, 30-50 etc. They could have done each of these tests seperately or they could have mashed the throttle and done a grand total of 4 tests. Which would I have done? Well I'm not lazy . . . but . . . 29 tests . . . whine . . . complain

Personally I like the steady state 30 then hit the accelerator because I think I would have been smart enough to downshift to second if I knew I had to hammer it. So in that rare case where I am in the wrong gear need to hit the pedal and all the negatives for a turbo are at their extremes (NAs need not apply), I am glad I have ESM's wonderful chip onboard.

[tweetdriver63]

Not very scientific, but this morning I was out and about and decided to check my 30-70 in 3rd gear. I was steady at 30 mph for about 25 secs (waiting for my watch to get to :00 -- see, not very scientific). When my watch hit :00, I floored it. When I reached 70, I looked at my watch and saw it turn over from :08 to :09. Not a very accurate timing method, but I think I can at least say it's between 8 and 9 seconds for my car, with a Supershit and MBC adjusted to mac at .75 bar boost. It was about 72 degrees, and about 75% humidity, at an elevation of about 200' MSL.

[GeoffSmith]

Presumably you colonials have a cat strangling the emissions.

[tweetdriver63]

Presumably you colonials have a cat strangling the emissions.

Why, yes. As a matter of fact, we are saddled with one of those pesky felines.

I plan to someday replace the stock exhaust with something a bit higher performance, and gut the pre-cat, but I think for financial reasons, I'm just going to have to wait until replacement is dictated by natural attrition.

[tigerdog]

Two words: Elan Scan!

Plug in ElanScan, start capturing and concentrate on driving.
Stop capturing, download and evaluate performance in the comfort of your PC workstation. I'll try this with Smaug next chance I get.

[GeoffSmith]

Given that I've knocked up more than a hundred ElanScan interfaces, what about we start a thread for various logs? A record of mods, mileage, fuel, ambient conditions etc. would be useful as well and 30-70 in third from 30 would be a good one to start with. We should sort out a common format for file naming as well.

PS well said Doug - I forgot to press the submit key a couple of hours ago.

[tigerdog]

Given that I've knocked up more than a hundred ElanScan interfaces, what about we start a thread for various logs? A record of mods, mileage, fuel, ambient conditions etc. would be useful as well and 30-70 in third from 30 would be a good one to start with. We should sort out a common format for file naming as well.

I second this. I'll suggest under "ElanScan", not "Upgrades". I'll do it soon, if no one else beats me to it.

[RayD]

If someone with a chipped engine could do a 60 to 70 in 3rd at full throttle I’d be obliged.

See Here

Ray

[GeoffSmith]

I'd love to Ray but I haven't got an interface!