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You can't just make the Traxxas 18x bigger and get linear performance improvement. Trying to compare power/weight between engines with radically different weigh

You can't just make the Traxxas 18x bigger and get linear performance improvement. Trying to compare power/weight between engines with radically different weight constraints is silly.

syrrim 4y ago
If you had 18 such engines it would get you precisely 18x the performance, at precisely 18x the weight.
- aidenn0 4y ago
  And precisely 1/18 the MTBF
  - pas 4y ago
    but it fails gracefully, right? (only one engine fails at a time) it's like RAID, great until the RAID card itself fails
    - aidenn0 4y ago
      It's probably most like losing power in a single cylinder; the effects vary from engine to engine.
      - jacquesm 4y ago
        They tend to seize and when they do and you gang them they'll likely break stuff in the other ones unless you add a freewheel or some other luxury like that.
  - 93po 4y ago
    In a way, sure. Often when a car engine fails people just replace it. If you were to replace all 18 when the first one failed, the same way you would with a regular car engine, it's not 1/18 the MTBF. And if it was just 1 failing prematurely and you replaced only that one, you also see that same dynamic with car engines when a single component of it fails that's worth fixing.
- Retric 4y ago
  No, because you would need to add structural elements, some way of combining power output, and cooling if you’re aiming for a similar form factor.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- seabird 4y ago
  That's why there's all sorts of widely produced performance vehicles with multiple independent engines!
93po 4y ago
Ok, a Kawasaki H2R engine makes 326 horsepower and weighs about 160 pounds running regular fuel. That's almost identical to the Traxxas - 1hp for 0.49 pounds.
- seabird 4y ago
  That engine is 4x heavier and supercharged. You're not comparing apples to apples.
  - 93po 4y ago
    my point is that this ratio exists both much smaller and also somewhat larger. it makes sense this same ratio would be possible in the middle of the two as well. also diesels have super/turbo chargers all the time on production engines, why is that cheating?

You can't just make the Traxxas 18x bigger and get linear performance improvement. Trying to compare power/weight between engines with radically different weight constraints is silly.

syrrim 4y ago

If you had 18 such engines it would get you precisely 18x the performance, at precisely 18x the weight.

aidenn0 4y ago
And precisely 1/18 the MTBF
- pas 4y ago
  but it fails gracefully, right? (only one engine fails at a time) it's like RAID, great until the RAID card itself fails
  - aidenn0 4y ago
    It's probably most like losing power in a single cylinder; the effects vary from engine to engine.
    - jacquesm 4y ago
      They tend to seize and when they do and you gang them they'll likely break stuff in the other ones unless you add a freewheel or some other luxury like that.
- 93po 4y ago
  In a way, sure. Often when a car engine fails people just replace it. If you were to replace all 18 when the first one failed, the same way you would with a regular car engine, it's not 1/18 the MTBF. And if it was just 1 failing prematurely and you replaced only that one, you also see that same dynamic with car engines when a single component of it fails that's worth fixing.
Retric 4y ago
No, because you would need to add structural elements, some way of combining power output, and cooling if you’re aiming for a similar form factor.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
seabird 4y ago
That's why there's all sorts of widely produced performance vehicles with multiple independent engines!

93po 4y ago

Ok, a Kawasaki H2R engine makes 326 horsepower and weighs about 160 pounds running regular fuel. That's almost identical to the Traxxas - 1hp for 0.49 pounds.

seabird 4y ago
That engine is 4x heavier and supercharged. You're not comparing apples to apples.
- 93po 4y ago
  my point is that this ratio exists both much smaller and also somewhat larger. it makes sense this same ratio would be possible in the middle of the two as well. also diesels have super/turbo chargers all the time on production engines, why is that cheating?