Highest powered Prius?

Figure out how to rearrange your life priorities a bit and the lack of power and quick 1/4mile times will not bother you when you drive the Prius. I know a few people who gave up on streetable "race cars" for a Prius and are not bothered by the fact they can't floor it at 90mph and spin the tires. *shrug*

It really is all in your head. If you can't handle driving a slow car then there are other issues to worry about. If I can do it, you can do it!

1/4 mile average times are low to mid 17s @ 77-79mph depending on DA and state of battery charge. 60' times are approx. 2.5sec.

 

While I suspect this entire thread is sarcasm, lets go over it.
The 2010 is faster and more powerful than all previous Prius. Between the ICE and the electric motors, it has 134 HP. The 2004 to 2009 Prius had 110 HP combined. The 2001 to 2003 Prius had 98 HP combined.

0 to 100 in a 2009 Prius takes 46 seconds. It's top speed is governed to 112 MPH.

Neither turbocharging (frequent start stop) nor supercharging (no belts, perhaps electric supercharger?) would be easy on a new Prius, I suspect Nitrous Oxide would be challenging given the Atkinson-cycle engine. (some air/fuel is pumped back into the intake manifold)

The most powerful member of it's engine family is the 155 HP 2 liter 3ZR-FAE.

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atkinson_cycle"]Atkinson cycle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

I advise you to only race the Smart ForTwo for pinks.

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_Fortwo"]Smart Fortwo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

 

NP man.

All the trim levels are essentially the same but as you know they less options you get the lighter the car tends to be...

Interestingly the car IMO feels slow off the line but passing power is decent enough to not get annoyed with while on the freeway. I would not attempt to pass every car on a 2-lane road however. It is suprisingly torquey in the 55-90mph range considering how slow it is in the 1/4mile which is why it has a decent trap speed for such a slow ET.

I think if you keep things in perspective you would be more than happy with the car. In fact, it is rather relaxing. Back when I still had my truck I felt like Jeckell and Hyde. One I drove like an idiot and the other like an old man CPA. lol In the end I ended up enjoying the Prius more so I sold the other stuff.

I recommend going on a test drive of the 2010. I bet you'll like it considering you have other toys if you just feel the need to lite em' up every once in awhile.

 

Yeah, the extra power and the increased timing/fuel maps (in Power Mode) really help out throttle response AND the average MPG seems to be 5+ higher than the 2004-2009 models.

Here is the thread I posted after one track day with the Prius.

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-prius-main-forum/23047-took-prius-drag-racing.html

 

If you want the ultimate eco-friendly performance car, you want this: Tesla Motors

Tesla Roadster: 0-60 time is 3.9 seconds with their 2-speed transmission.

 

A co-worker has one. I got to drive about a month ago. It's deceptively fast because it doesn't have that punch that comes with the peak of ICEs. Instead, it has moderately hard acceleration right from the very start that never lets up. You press the pedal and your acceleration rate is the same all the way up to wherever you let off the throttle. 4 seconds is just as easily achieved by the novice driver as by the experienced as punching it from a stop provides full torque and power with no breaking loose and there's no shifting for the driver so there's no skill needed. No clutch to modulate.

The other thing is it's super quiet. A small eletric motor whine noise up until about 20 MPH and then it vanishes and all you hear is the rush of wind. It was quite amazing.

Really cramped getting in and out, but once you're in, there's enough leg room. Just don't put the top on. It's best to just leave it off otherwise you have to crawl through a little hole of an entry to get in.

It had no simulated creep like the Prius does either.

 

To answer the original question. There are two approaches to increasing Prius output to the wheels.

1) Increase power of the ICE. Whatever could be done to achieve this would be limited by the MG1.

See this model for prep:

Toyota Prius - Power Split Device

The Prius uses a Split Power device that uses an electric motor on the inner most gear to redirect ICE torque(on the middle gear) to either the wheels(the outer most gear) or back to the MG1. That's why the call it a power split device (PSD).

The MG1 has to be able to overcome the torque of the ICE with it's own torque in order to direct power back to the traction ring. Even if you could get the ICE up to 200 HP, you wouldn't be able to use it all because it would just force the MG1 to spin backwards, charging the battery, but in the end, wasting energy.

The MG1 was designed to overcome the maximum torque possible on the ICE in it's stock configuration. The design accounts for the increased torque that will occur at much colder temperatures when air density is higher. At the coldest end of the operating range, power of the ICE will be as much as 20% higher than at 70F at sea level. Therefore, you can be sure that increasing power by 20% will be usable provided the software doesn't take into account temperature and limit the MG1 to what it knows would be the maximum output of the ICE at a given temp. Assuming that's not the case, nitrous would be the way to go. Atkinson Cycle does not limit the use of nitrous. However, you'd be limited to a small shot given the MG1's required balancing act. The shot would have to be small at probably no more than 20 or 25 at the very most. It would provide a significant short term boost but it still isn't going to overcome the likes of corvettes and super sedans by any means.

I'm not aware of anyone actually having tried this yet. I've search and searched and nothing.


Choice 2: Hack the the software to increase the output of the MG2 which is the large main electric motor attached to the outer ring of the PSD essentially driving the wheels directly. It outputs a maximum of 295 ft/lbs. It's very powerful. It's traction on takeoff is severely limited otherwise it would just spin the tires into a molten mess. The software lets more out if you're already up to speed than it does from take off. Additionally, it let's more out for shorter periods provided that it wasn't used heavily just recently. This is to keep the MG2 from getting too hot. The result is that 0 to 60 and 1/4 mile times aren't that great, but mid speed passing is fabulous for the amount of *rated* power. The 50-70 and 70 to 90 roll on times are as fast as most cars that have double the horsepower. My prius gets from 70 to 90 just as quick as my Lexus SC400 do and it has 250 HP. This is confirmed using a g-tech with data collection.
This is only the case if the battery is 5/8s charged or better and full power passing hasn't just been attempted in the last 30 seconds or so.

Nobody has been successful doing this yet and I'm not aware of any serious attempts made public. It would suprise me if there aren't aftermarket companies looking into it.