It's natural to compare !

There is a guy who has assembled all the stats for tons of UK cars into an Excel spreadsheet and done some smart calcs and searching stuff etc. It means you can compare power to weight, torque to weight ratios etc etc. Have a look at :-

http://www.shaun.sheppard.btinternet.co.uk/durhamcruises/ukreccars.htm

 

This is the readme.txt that comes with it :-

 

The DervMan's DataSheet 3.2

===========================

 

 

Introduction

============

 

 

These brief notes will help you to understand what the

DataSheet contains and how to get the most from it.

 

Firstly, the DataSheet is in M$ Excel 97 format. If you

want it in another format, let me know. I will try my

best. Since I use M$ Excel 97, in any other format you

will lose some of the special features.

 

The DataSheet contains two types of data: that sourced

from magazines / brochures / others and the rest, which

is calculated. To save space, all of the data in this

DataSheet is a Value - i.e. if you add new cars, it will

not recalculate the cells.

 

By using values the DataSheet has gone from 3.4 Mb to

only 900 Kb.

 

 

Column Titles

=============

 

 

S Special Select. Use this to help you select

cars with otherwise different characteristics.

 

N Nationality. The latest DataSheet contains

many American cars. V3.2 only contains a

token trio.

 

Make Do I need to explain this?

 

Model And this one?

 

Year Heh you must be kidding.

 

Eng The engine capacity, in litres.

 

Ig The ignition type (injection, mechanical, carb).

 

F Fuel type, petrol, diesel or LPG.

 

As Aspiration - NA (atmo), LB (low blow turbo), TC

(turbocharged), SC (supercharged), Hy (hybrid).

 

Cy Cylinders.

 

Va Total valves for the engine.

 

D Driven wheels (front, rear or all).

 

Ins Insurance Group (note these vary, and the highest

quoted is *usually* used).

 

MPG Either the Euromix or the Government Combined MPG

depending on the age of the car.

 

CO2 The CO2 output of the car.

 

RtV Retained Value after 36k / 3 years.

 

Sz Size class. 1 = city car, 1.5 = small coupe,

2 = supermini, 2.5 = medium coupe, 3 = small family,

4 = medium family, 5 = large family, 6 = small MPV,

7 = large MPG, 8 = small offroader, 9 = large

offroader. Used for sector comparisons.

 

Type See Sz, only expressed as a text field rather than a

number

 

Cl The vehicles power and torque class. The higher the

better. Gives a simple indication of performance.

 

Service What Car's 36,000 mile maximum service cost figure,

or a guestimate

 

Mph Vehicle's top speed.

 

0-60 Guess?

 

30-70 Where available, the 30 - 70 time through the gears.

 

PS Maximum power output of the engine.

 

Nm Maxiumum torque output.

 

Kg Quoted kerb weight.

 

Lts Quoted fuel tank capacity.

 

PW Power to weight ratio.

 

TW Torque to weight ratio.

 

WR Sum of the above two.

 

PSL PS per litre of engine capacity.

 

NmL Nm per litre of engine capacity.

 

OPL Sum of the above two.

 

VPC Valve configuration per cylinder.

 

Rng Car's 95% range at the Euromix figure.

 

TF Torque factor - the ratio of Nm to PS. As you get

closer to 1.0, so the engine feels peakier. VTEC

drivers note!

 

Lease Where available, the 3 + 35 / 36K lease cost figure,

Cost but note that these are *very* variable.

 

CPM The cost per month of leasing it - includes fuel,

(Lease) and insurance, excludes everyything else.

 

CPM Cost per month of owning the car, excludes finance

(Lease) costs and depreciation (at present but its coming!).

 

Value The DervMan's Value Rating. Measures cost per month

and Performance. Higher is better!

 

CO2 Measures the CO2 output against the performance, to

Perf get the most bang for your puff (so to speak).

 

Rel. Relative performance: wanna see how your Fiesta

Perf compares against the quickest car in the DataSheet

(currently the TVR Cerbera 4.5).

 

Perf Takes the PW, TW, maximum speed, 0-60 and 30-70

figures, shuffles them about a bit, assigns different

weighting to each one, substitutes where it needs to

and comes up with a "real world performance score."

 

 

Using The DataSheet

===================

 

Filters

-------

 

Do you know how to use Excel filters? Hope so.

 

Click on the black triangle in the grey box in the bottom

right corner of each cell. Select what you want to filter

by, for example, just Sz 1.0 cars.

 

Find

----

 

CTRL & F to find.

 

 

Calculations

============

 

I jealously guard the calculations behind the DataSheet!

 

But if you think something is misrepresented, please let me

know!

 

The CPM (Lease) and CPM (Own) figures use known insurance

details, fuel consumption, road fund, and service costs.

Whilst they have proved to be reasonable accurate in the

DervMan's experience, these are only an indication of the

cost of the car.

 

The Performance figure is not designed to show how quick a

car is on a track day, but how useable the performance is.

Most turbodiesels show up reasonably well here on account of

their high torque figures.

 

 

Comments, Suggestions, Beer Tokens, New Data

============================================

 

Send all comments, suggestions, beer tokens, or abuse to the

DervMan, at dervman@dotloose.com

 

If you have a new car, let me know at the above e-mail

address and I'll include it.

 

 

The DervMan

05/12/2001