captainbilly

That's an interesting thought, that the drivetrain losses are related to RPM and not actual power going through them. If that is true then you would indeed not loose additional power just because the engine is producing more power. I also had another thought, what gear do they dyno a car at, do they run in 6th and spin the wheels at ~170mph and risk throwing a tire or do they do it in 1st or 2nd etc.

I also wonder how rotational inertia would enter into the picture. Are dyno plots done while accelerating?! If they were, the weight of the wheels/tires would enter into the equation as would all sorts of other things that don't actually have any effect on power in the steady state. The dyno plot of an accelerating drivetrain would show that a car with heavy wheels, tires, clutch, flywheel, etc. has less power that one with lighter parts, something that is clearly untrue. Of course it is true that the 0-60 times of a car can be effected by the weight of rotating parts but that is not related to engine horsepower but to the fact that these parts are storing energy just the same as it is true that a heavy car with the same engine as a light car will not accelerate as quickly. Power is the same to the wheels but during acceleration a larger part of the engine power is going to the kinetic energy stored by the.