They’re not leaving any “speed on the table”, a race track has turns. So like I said, maximum achievable speeds are rarely achieved and only on a few race tracks. Of course the cars are geared for the specific track they’re racing on, but that doesn’t mean they are always at their maximum power.

Drafting is exactly what allows a car to achieve higher speeds with at lower RPM, because it allows the pursuer to short shift and get into a higher gear than the person in front of them. So yes, they would have RPM to spare since they’re in a higher gear and can shift down for more power.

Why? Because you’re starting to act like a jerk and I don’t need any of that?

But fine, I am willing to explain if you’re willing to tone down a bit. To start off: I drove a manual car for a decade until this march. So I kinda know how they work – maybe don’t try to make so many assumptions about who you’re talking to.

And who said anything about redlining? The point is that the drafting car is not redlined. Nor is the one in front, they just can’t accelerate any faster because of wind resistance. Your scenario would only occur when both cars are driving at their maximum achievable speeds. That only happens on very few race tracks like this one.

Maybe you can stop getting stuck in the loop where the only possibility is that you’re right and I’m wrong, but instead explore the possibility that you may learn something.

Wow, doubling down now and acting like a jerk on top of that? No thanks.

This conversation is over, I’m disengaging

Mate I don’t mean to rain on your parade, but if you want to make overconfident statements like that I suggest you read the web page I linked above to refreshen your knowledge about Newton’s Second Law, torque and angular momentum. There is nothing ridiculous or nonsensical about Newton’s 2nd law and it applies here :)

On the contrary, it happens all the time. In car racing, but also in the TdF for example.

DRS is mostly a F1 thing, and doesn’t have that much to do with what’s being discussed here, because it makes a physical change to the car itself. And of course if you get to turn on a second engine that’s something else as well.

I know about wind resistance lol. I’m talking about the fact that some extra acceleration can be achieved by lowering the gear. When you overtake someone in your own car yourself (or if you ride a bike it’s more noticeable when you draft behind) you will notice that acceleration is easier if you lower your gear. That’s because you have more torque / angular momentum in a lower gear. Of course that means that you also start your acceleration while still drafting, like you mentioned, but that isn’t the entire effect. Whether that effect is actually strong enough to overtake their opponent is another thing, depending on the car and speed at the time.

Right, so what is it that makes them be able to accelerate past their opponent? More room for acceleration within the same gear?

I assume that drafting allows them to drive a lower rpm/torque than the front guy, so the car still has some extra for the overtake

Well I think that when they’re drafting behind another car they may be in top gear and shifting down definitely helps to accelerate, just not maintain a certain speed.

Aaaah, so that’s what they meant by that quote…

Kid Buu: Do not try and find the Dragonball. That’s impossible. Instead… only try to realize the truth.

Neoku: What truth?

Kid Buu: There is no live-action Dragon Ball.

The original film was close to perfection, the second film had its moments, like the night club scene and the introduction of the twins and flipping an SUV with a samurai sword, and the third… basically only thing I remember is watching a live-action version of a DBZ fight, which was awesome to watch in the theatre and obviously still miles better than any fight in the actual live-action DBZ movie… But I couldn’t tell you what the rest of the film was about.

I feel like I could have written this comment word for word. But luckily you already did so now I only have to write this short one.

I usually go with:

This is mambo #5!