FGX XR6T Sprint Dyno review.
XR6 Sprint Dyno Review.
There’s been a lot of hype on social media from basically the day of the release of the Sprint 6 details about what the Sprint 6 will produce performance wise.
From the outset natural curiosity has seen people debating how the Sprint 6 will compare to its sibling’s power and performance.
Recently people have challenged reputations, motives and integrities over the Sprints. Some have even questioned the 370kw claim.
Be that envy, insecurity or natural curiosity I felt the need to address it, because some of that has been levelled at me.
While it would be completely impractical to engine dyno a Sprint 6 engine I though hey, let’s find out for ourselves what a Sprint 6 will produce at the wheels.
When it comes to dynoing Fords there’s no better person to talk to about this than Rob Herrod from Herrod Motorsport.
Firstly, let me say we need be very aware about how we digest chassis dyno results.
Apart from there being 2 brands (Mainline and Dyno Dynamics) there’s 2 styles: rollers and hub. Mainline offer both types.
Up until recently the vast majority of results produced have been via rollers, which can add in 2 variables, “slip” and tie down force.
These 2 variables can impact the registered output significantly.
A hub dyno in contrast requires the removal of the rear wheels and hard coupling to the dyno itself.
This removes these 2 significant variables.
With that in mind it does make it very very difficult to compare different results from different dyno types because there is 3 possible testing platforms 2 of which have multiple variables to consider.
See what I mean?
Herrods have recently installed a Mainline Hub dyno. Rob is confident it’s a much more accurate measurement tool and as described above has eliminated 2 key variables.
Rob to his credit has always been extremely approachable and helpful to us Ford folk.
It came as no surprise that he was not only willing to help us out but enthusiastic to see the results. For that I can’t thank him enough.
So what did we do?
Well Rob was good enough to provide dyno results from his hub dyno for a XR6T Sprint he has recently dyno’d for us along with details of how it was done.
Process.
To gather the best performance out of the vehicles, they utilised the following processes:
- Ensure the car was properly up to temp, this isn’t just the IAT’s but the engine oil temp as well. To ensure this is the case, they ran the cars for 5 minutes at 80 kmh on the dyno with the fan on to get a good constant stream of air running to the vehicle. Caltex 98 octane fuel was used.
- The dyno is a new, mainline hub dyno, which rules out strapping, wheel creep, slip, new vs old tyres and operator error – They are significantly more consistent and true when it comes to getting a reading
- Each run had a 15 second ramp up (they could have gone less) but they wanted to show an average run (performance would have been even stronger if we shortened the runs.)
- Runs were done in 3rd and 4th gear
4rd gear.
Run 1 - 298.7 4th gear
Run 2 – 292.9 4th gear
Run 3 – 302.3 4th gear
Run 4 – 305.0 4th gear
4th gear Average: 299.73rwkw
3rd gear.
Run 5 – 309.4 3rd gear
Run 6 – 309.1 3rd gear
Run 7 – 308.6 3rd gear
Run 8 – 305.3 3rd gear
3rd gear Average: 308.78rwkw
Results.
I contacted the Ford Engineers for comment.
- As was explained to me by the Ford team, the vehicles 3rd gear overboost is slightly higher than 4th, and the cars run more boost in 3rd gear, which is understandable, you’ll hit the speed limiter before rev limiter in 4th and there isn’t a drag strip or virtually any road in Australia long enough to see maximum performance in 4th gear, so as the focus was on available performance, 3rd gear boost performance is higher than 4th. Injector duration and capacity is maximised in 4th which results in the difference in performance.
- They ran the car with intervals of 2 minutes between runs with the car running at 80kmh intervals – this was used as on a power run they were seeing IAT’s of 40 degrees (start) to 69 degrees, they would run the car on the dyno until the car went back to 40 degrees, or thereabouts.
But what does this all mean?
Well first off Let me point out that from a Performance perspective the Sprint 6 has ticked all the boxes when it comes to “walking the walk”.
It has nothing to prove in this regard as I illustrated in my part 3) of the launch.
http://falconforums.com.au/showthrea...rmance-testing
When tested by the Media using the same timing device (Racelogic Performance Box) the best F6 time I can find is a 4.9 sec 0-100 and 5. something for the 270 XR6T.
We managed a 0-100 in 4.5 seconds which makes it the fastest production 6 cylinder ever manufactured in this country by nearly half a second over its cousin the F6 under the same test equipment methods.
In terms of dyno results historically we’ve seen numerous F6’s on Dyno’s, most from what I can make out have averaged around the 255rwkw mark.
There’s also been plenty of FGX XR6T’s around 220rwkw too. The sprint 6 on this particular test averaged 309rwkw in 3rd gear.
So irrespective of dyno numbers the Sprint 6 is significantly quicker than its siblings, and makes more power too.
It has become generally accepted that the driveline in our Falcons absorbs about 65-70rwkw.
When taking into account the average number we’ve obtained (and obtained for F6/XR6T) and add back that driveline number guess what...
It’s worth noting that when I spoke with The Ford engineers they confirmed they do not use chassis dyno’s at all.
When asked why, the main rationale was consistency and the point of a chassis dyno is as a tuning tool, not as an ultimate performance guide.
They also pointed out the Pirelli vs the Dunlop being a significant difference. The Dunlop’s are a harder compound, with different pressures to the Sprints.
Running a “back to back” comparison, even on the same dyno, won’t produce a consistent result because of the SIGNIFICANT variables in the tyres.
They are just so different in their construction, they will add more resistance to the rollers than the Dunlop’s and subsequently a different performance figure.
Using a hub dyno removes this variable and allows a much more consistent approach.
I really want to thank Rob Herrod again for his help and cooperation with this test. It was greatly appreciated.
3rd Gear Chart:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.n...8d7fdec167fac5
4th Gear Chart:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.n...098f02c7162a6f
