Upping your acceleration in 3 easy steps

Bungee jumping, roller coasters, skydiving. This is just a short list of activities that are wildly exciting and fill you with adrenaline. Why are they so exciting though? Well they all share one common factor, acceleration, humans are hardwired to enjoy acceleration and the more extreme the better. It is no surprise then that we are constantly seeking a way to get more acceleration in our lives and the most common place we can experience this is our cars.

It’s no wonder then that car tuners are constantly trying to eke out more acceleration from their standard production cars by any means possible. Now the unfortunate part of many car tuners’ story is when they only focus on pumping more power from their engine and do not focus on any other aspect of acceleration. A cars ability to accelerate is dependent on three main factors that are immediately obvious when you look to any motorsport; power, weight and grip. From the F1 cars of Silverstone to the Dragsters of Santa Pod they all have these three factors in abundance and they are the key to their extreme acceleration.

In this blog we have put together a few easy tips for making your acceleration more of an exciting experience;

Power

Though it is not the only factor in acceleration it is an important factor all the same and one that you will want to attend to. There are literally hundreds of ways in which you can increase the power of your production car including turbo charging, porting, performance camshafts and many more but one of the simplest ways to get more power is to get an ECU Remap. By getting into and changing the cars brain an ECU remap will unlock the extra potential of your engine quickly and easily.

Grip

All that extra power is nothing if your car cannot properly transmit this power onto the road and turn it into increased acceleration. There are two main areas in which your standard car may let the side down when it comes to grip. Firstly there are the tyres, standard road tyres are designed to work on snow as well as they work on dry tarmac, but how often does it snow really? Get rid of the standard tyres and put a more focussed compound on there and you will instantly see better acceleration. Secondly is the differential, this is the part that translates the power of the engine into actual forward motion; unfortunately standard differentials are not designed to cope with increased power and cannot put it onto the road effectively. An upgraded differential such as a Wavetrac differential will ensure that all of the power is transmitted to the wheels and tyres. By increasing grip with these two easy steps you will very quickly see your levels of acceleration increase.

Weight

When you have increased grip and power the next step is to lighten and the best philosophy to follow is that of Colin Chapman ‘Simplify and add lightness’. The best place to start is to get rid of any parts that you don’t think the car needs; do you often use those backseats? Does all that plastic trim make you go any quicker? If the answer to these questions is no then get rid of them. Shedding excess weight will give you instant and very noticeable performance differences.

So if you are a sucker for an adrenaline-fuelled bit of acceleration then follow these simple steps and you cannot go far wrong. If you are at all unsure on any stage of your performance upgrading then feel free to contact us and our trained staff will be happy to help.