On Board Dyno??

[1968Maro]

Anybody know what happened to this idea? Is there anything out there like this?

I read an article a couple of years ago now in a Car and Driver about a father and son that were working to invent a true "on board" dyno.

As I remember it, their system was a pretty complicated build in that involved an accelerometer bolt in replacement for the U joint of the drive shaft. It was supposed to be read through induction by a collar that was bolted on around the drive shaft.

It was a pretty cool idea, and was supposed to be a very accurate way of reading real time HP at any time.



Obviously lots of technical problems with this, and I remember reading that they had serious problems with the accelerometer's failing under such intense forces.

I have heard of "on board" dyno's in the past they made pretty wild guesses by pluging into the on board computer, always heard they were not worth much more than a guess.

[wmhjr]

I'm not sure this is even possible in the real world - for it to be "very accurate". There is no real way to account for coefficient of drag, traction and other variables. Seems as though it would be an even more inaccurate (but fun) system that used math formulas to estimate tq and hp based on wheel revolutions, speed and weight.