Finally a Solution To Who Is The Best! The ‘Speed Per Dollar’ Index

It occurred to me that enthusiasts could use a new equation to better quantify a vehicle’s capabilities in view of its cost—something like horsepower-per-pound-per-dollar, a metric that more artfully balances power, weight, and financial outlay. Thus, the “Speed per Dollar” concept was born.

Being something of a buffoon at mathematics and graphics, I sought help to turn the idea into a meaningful standardized equation that would yield useful numbers. The staff at WINDING ROAD rallied around the concept and contacted the fine folks at Funnel Inc. (motto: “Information design that makes the complex clear”), and the concept became a reality.
,br>
Read Article

Agent009 - 5/31/2007 4:41:03 PM

0 Boost

sounds like a great idea, but something tells me a few of you may want reliability factored in there as well.

budfrogS4 - 5/31/2007 4:54:12 PM

+4 Boost

Wouldn't mind seeing a few more cars on there too. I'd like to see where the M/RS/AMG lines stack up against this too. I mean, that's where the real heated battles are right?

EL34 - 5/31/2007 4:55:14 PM

-4 Boost

I'm too cool for Lexus!

BMW_DRVR - 5/31/2007 5:13:25 PM

+6 Boost

I am convinced that you people are in love. Just seven munites after he posted you commented. Damn!!!

Rupert - 5/31/2007 6:20:27 PM

+6 Boost

In which states are civil partnerships legal? They are such a good married couple.

S4cabriofoxone - 6/1/2007 1:14:40 AM

+1 Boost

Actually, I don't think any states allow same-sex marriage any more.

Rupert - 6/1/2007 6:00:46 AM

+3 Boost

Why not?
We have it in the UK and it hasn't affected, well, anyone. Even the right-wing commentators don't mention it. I don't see why it's so taboo.

w209w114 - 6/1/2007 11:58:26 AM

+2 Boost

Thats because George Bush forgets that he is also a religious extremist as well. And we have a lot of ignorant people.

GTR35 - 6/1/2007 12:02:47 AM

+3 Boost

Thank you, I thought I was the only one that thought that this is the stupidest article in Autospies history.

r_driver04 - 6/1/2007 1:39:08 PM

+2 Boost

30 seconds of my life wasted.

Threepoint1415926 - 5/31/2007 7:31:23 PM

-1 Boost

Where the hell can I buy an Atom for $38K? Last time I checked, the one in car and driver sold for about $70k, used....

cdoke - 6/1/2007 1:36:49 AM

+1 Boost

This equation seems a bit arbitrary to me. So, in order to examine how the structure of the inputs into the equation translates to the results, I took all of the raw data [and one synthetic point: you have to have 15 points for an accurate probabiltiy fit] and put it into Crystal Ball.

For those who are unaware, Crystal Ball is a program used to perform Monte Carlo Simulations [although it also performs Latin Hypercube sampling] Essentially the systemic inputs are distributions as well as the results. The program also performs sensitivity analyses.

If you were to assume that the inputs are uniform distributions, you would find that relative to eachother their contributions of each input are equal at 33.3% However, that is not the case. By doing a batch fit on the actual data presented you find that the Horsepower data corresponds to a Beta distribution, the weight to a Student's T and the Price to a Pareto Distribution.

Running the simulation you find that the structure of the results is 81.3% sensitive to price, 17.5 sensitive to horsepower, and 1.2% senstive to weight.

It is little wonder the Veyron is at the bottom.

cdoke - 6/1/2007 12:17:02 PM

+1 Boost

You are quite right, although what I really wanted were the actual sensitivity numbers themselves, which cannot be gleaned from that.

indoctrin8ed - 6/1/2007 5:44:39 PM

+2 Boost

With this chart, a Huffy ten speed bicycle would come out on top.

Not particularly interesting.

Plus, they could have done a better job on the speed axis than using HP:weight, like 0-60 acceleration.