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If you don’t know what a dynamometer is – it is simply a treadmill for cars. Just as a runner uses a treadmill in a gym, a tuner can use a dyno to simulate the road, without the car ever having to leave the garage. In addition to the obvious advantage of driving the car above the speed limit, a host of other possibilities emerge using a dyno. The car can be held at constant speed, constant load or more exciting things can be done such as 0 to 60, 1/4 mile and max BHP measurement!
With the plummeting price of technology, you can now get a top quality laptop for £500. Getting a top quality dynamometer doesn’t have to break the bank either. With dreamscience you can have a 1100 BHP 2 wheel drive dyno for less than £19K – that’s around £500 per month if you pay over 4 years at a sensible interest rate!
Furthermore, if there isn’t a dyno in your local area, then you’ve struck gold. Simply advertise a dyno day every month and you’ll have flocks of customers coming in to get their BHP measured. Charge £35 a run – 15 customers later and you’ve paid your dyno for a month!
Now your dyno is paying for itself, it can be put to further work. Tuning and diagnostics come to mind. Most cars are now tuned by loading performance software via the car’s diagnostic port. There are many companies providing tuning software, including dreamscience and once the software is loaded onto the car, its time to hit the road – well the dyno !
The car’s power and torque can be measured and compared with stock software, which is of great reassurance to the customer. Going further, lambda, spark timing, rpm, etc can be monitored using a data-logger and combined with dyno data for more advanced tuning. Many dynos, including those from dreamscience, can also be used for race and track preparation. The dyno is able to simulate wind drag and vehicle weight so accurate 0 to 60 and ¼ mile times can be measured.
This allows real-life testing of camshafts, exhaust systems, etc to see if they make a real difference on the road. Looking at recent trends in the automotive industry, there are certainly more customers buying performance upgrades and there is a great deal of choice. The dyno helps as it is a great proving tool for the upgrades.
There are several common configurations of dyno. 2WD and 4WD are self explanatory with the 4WD configuration costing substantially more due to the all wheel drive system. However some dynos such as the dreamscience 2WD-Gladiator can be purchased as a 2WD system and then later upgraded to 4WD. Above-ground and in-ground installation are another configuration consideration. In the early days, most dynamometers we installed in the ground. This is a neat and effective approach, but is sometimes not so handy in rented premises, where relocation of the dyno can be a big issue.
I personally prefer above-ground installation, especially of small 2WD dynos. A dreamscience 2WD-Gladiator (as shown) can be installed above ground in a few days, after which it can be moved around using a pallet truck if need be. The dyno can be placed at the end of a four post vehicle ramp or aluminium dyno ramps can be used. Above ground installation also means that the car is about 1ft off the ground. This tends to make accidental standing in the rollers difficult – which is a good thing. The illustration shows a typical small above ground dyno setup.
A dyno really can be as simple or advanced as you want and is fast becoming an essential piece of kit in a modern workshop. I hope this article has been useful and for more information, certainly get in touch.
Adam Contoret
Director
dreamscience Automotive Ltd
As featured in PS Retailer Magazine, 26th March 2008
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Introduction
