Elevation effect on E.T.

[FordCowboy]

Just curious if anyone has a good idea of how much elevation affects track times. Being in Colorado, and running at Bandimere which is around 5,800ft I know my times are going to be slower because there is less air up here, I am just curious how much slower. I see lots of people post their times and with trucks very similar to mine, running like 1-2 seconds faster, so how much of this is due to elevation?

[2005F250]

I would only think it would effect your turbo lag. It seems like 20 psi of boost @5800ft would be the same as 20 psi of boost @100ft.

[FordCowboy]

I would only think it would effect your turbo lag. It seems like 20 psi of boost @5800ft would be the same as 20 psi of boost @100ft.

Ok, so I finally found something that gives somewhat of an idea. I think this is what is used in NHRA to even out numbers from around the country. This will tell you what your time would equal at sea level. So my 16.2 would be 15.0 at sea level. But now you have me wondering what effect a turbo and diesel has on this that might make the numbers in this chart not as accurate for us.

NHRA Elevation Correction Factors - TSR Software

[2005F250]

Originally Posted by 2005F250

I would only think it would effect your turbo lag. It seems like 20 psi of boost @5800ft would be the same as 20 psi of boost @100ft.

Originally Posted by FordCowboy

Ok, so I finally found something that gives somewhat of an idea. I think this is what is used in NHRA to even out numbers from around the country. This will tell you what your time would equal at sea level. So my 16.2 would be 15.0 at sea level. But now you have me wondering what effect a turbo and diesel has on this that might make the numbers in this chart not as accurate for us.

NHRA Elevation Correction Factors - TSR Software

Okay but now I have a question about my comment. Does it take more effort to make 20psi of boost @5800ft as it does @100ft?

[FordCowboy]

Okay but now I have a question about my comment. Does it take more effort to make 20psi of boost @5800ft as it does @100ft

I'm gonna go with not more effort but as you said turbo lag would be an issue because there is less air available so more time to acquire the needed air to make 20psi. So this would make me think the numbers in the chart aren't quite as accurate for a turbo'd motor. Also this is getting more complex than I really care about and probably not that much difference but, since diesel burns more so than explodes like gas and there are no spark plugs to help the burn is there going to be an effect from this that isn't accounted for in the chart.

[tbsimmons]

Elevation per say has no effect on the time slips.
Density Altitude does. It has temp. Humidity, etc. factored in.
DA does effect all engines, more so on the NA engines.
The reason is the track I go to is about 650'.
Most of the time the DA is 2000+'
Some tracks back east are near sea level, get in close to winter and you can get a DA -1000'
Makes a HUGE difference in the running of the cars.
The factors posted look to be for NA engines.

[chucknorris1217]

i live in virginia and drove home to castle rock co, with my old mustang though, but it still ran like crap its two totaly differnet worlds. it felt like a 50 hp difference