The big power loss is where the tyre tries to drive the roller. It is a pretty crappy form of friction drive where the tyre must deform to transmit sufficient driving torque. The road is flat, but the dyno roller might be quite small.
As you change dyno roller diameter, wheel diameter, operating RPM, transmitted torque, tyre compound and pressure, and how hard you have to tie the damned thing down, the tyre power losses can vary all over the place.
That is why Bill's dyno always reads higher than Jim's dyno on the same day with the same car. Hub dynos are better, and engine dynos better still.
======================================================
everything i've modeled in my computer program that i had good accurate DragStrip and Engine Dyno data on..the worst i've seen is 84% PerCent total drivetrain efficiency, from Engine Dyno to DragStrip times correlation
but from Chassis Dyno to DragStrip ET Slip correlation,
there seems to be as much as 22 to 26 % PerCent loss
or 74 to 78 % PerCent Total drivetrain efficiency .
a full 10 PerCent more due to Tires on chassis dyno roller effects
Larry Meaux (maxracesoftware@yahoo.com)
Meaux Racing Heads - MaxRace Software
ET_Analyst for DragRacers
Support Israel - Genesis 12:3