Flying DB5 on A3...

[rthierry]

I saw an old DB5 giving it large last sunday on the A3 just outside London. Couldn't believe how quick these things are . The Chimaera was keeping up ok, but I would never have thought these old machines could accelerate so hard. Well impressed.

[davidy]

Standard DB5 has 280bhp, Vantage about 320bhp, weights 1450kg a bit more than your Chimaera but power/weight of Vantage is around 220bhp/ton.

Now say a Chimaera 4.5 puts out a genuine 250bhp then its power/weight is approx 250/1100 or 227 bhp/ton

Pretty even then. A lot of 60/70s cars are surprisingly quick on the move, mainly because they don't weigh as much as their modern conterparts. I mean look how porky the 911 has got:-

1969 911S under 1000kg
Current 996 Carrera around 1350kg

There's even a lot of plastics on the modern car, but its really all down to comfort (fat armchairs), in-car toys and safety.

davidy

[jhoneyball]

320bhp? Ah yes... for a small one... Many of them are now fitted with the RS Williams 4.2 or 4.5 litre engine. See the power graph for the 4.5 litre which shows it hitting 375 horsepower in a normal road-use configuration.

www.rswilliams.co.uk/images/graph2a.gif

In semi-race tune you can add up to 50bhp on top of that.