Does weight affect top speed of a car?
 

Simple question right?

it does. but only a small amount - by increasing weight, you increase rolling resistance on the tires a small amount.

top speed is mainly limited by the amount of power available against air drag on the car as speed increases

But a more massive car also means you must have more power to accelorate that mass against wind resistance.

Everyone Is Right!!! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

depends on which factors you want to include, air resistance will increase expontentially as speed increases, as drivetrain loss will decreases as speed increases. Also the fine line of adding downforce which will also add another vector to the equation.

The simple answer is yes weight affects, but depends on how the weight is used. Heavier things are easier to control as speed increases compared to lighter things in air.

^True and you have to think of how the wind wants to pick up the back end of the car. So less weight will only lead to how they say; The back end is braking lose. Like in NASCAR. Thats why they spin so quick when bumped at high speeds.

that's acceleration - not top speed. Adding 3 Fat guys to one's car, everything else being equal won't show any adverse affect on top speed worth mentioning. .005mph? .05mph? I dunno. ASSUMING one increases the rolling resistance (by flatting the tires some), there's some effect likely - course, the car might also benefit by being lower to the ground.


So - for practical, reasonable purposes. No.

There was an article a couple of years back in SCC(?) that had them strip off a stock Nissan Sentra and it ran 10 sec.

this may be true but even still that is not top speed but 1/4 mile. very few cars can reach top speed in that distance. i'd say thats more acceleration. not a physics professor though.

um 3 letter and a symbol answer: F=MA

I agree.