AJC-05GT said:
rumor has it that for the 05 mustang about 13% loss on manual an 18% on the auto.
Usually I see people use around 15%+/- for a manual and up to 23% for automatic..here is a good article on HP and torque
Remeber these are only guesses, as every car will have different looses, and it would be silly to assume that a1960's muscle car has the same loaas as a modern fwd hatch producing the same amount of power.
Example a 5.0 60's Mustang was rated @ 250bhp Gross so would have been about 190-200bhp by todays standards.
Yet a Honda Civic Type R also has 197bhp.
Working on the 15% rule they would both loose the same thru the transmission. But do you seriuosly beleive that a modern lightweight compact drivetrain like the Honda's will loose as much as the slightly more agricultural setup on the classic Mustang. For most people the best you can do is dyno the car STOCK and correct the numbers to SAE Net stadards (although this is still inaccurate as Mustang dyno's and Dynojet will still give different numbers) and compare to the factory rated output. This variance will stay pretty much the same with small mods and slowly increase with the more power the engine produces - its only a guess, but educated.
If your STOCK (Must be STOCK) 05 GT dyno's a rwhp of 260rwhp the 15% rule would give you 305bhp - THIS IS LIKELY TO BE WRONG.
What is more feasable is that the drivetrain is sapping slightly more power. It also depends on how you calculate it. As is it a 15% from 300bhp OR the engine is producing 15% more than the 260rwhp????
If the engine is making 300bhp, then 260rwhp is a 13.3% loss of power from the engine, or an easier way know you have found the variance of 40bhp it is easier to assume tthat this will remain fairly constant unless drivetrain components are changed.
So if you mod your car and get 310rwhp + the 'known' loss of 40bhp will give you a realistic engine output of 350bhp. Due to friction the loss may increase slightly but as the drivetrain components have ot changed this increase should only be slight, maybe a 2-5bhp more.
The reason people don't like working it out this way, is the simple fact that it will not produce such big numbers. If you still assumed a 15% with 310rwhp it would give you 365bhp - personally I feel this is not only optimistic but unlikely, the physics just don't add up.