PerfectPower database
(394 cars as of Sunday, March 1, 2026)
(available directly in PerfectPower iOS, and soon in PerfectPower Android)
(will be removed from the website as soon as it is integrated into PerfectPower Android)
PerfectPower created its own database on December 11, 2023, to which you will have to refer to enter the 8 basic data of your Car sheet necessary for power measurements:
- Car weight
- Engine displacement
- Number of cylinders
- Transmission
- Tyres dimension
- Gear ratios
- Final ratio
- Cd.A
This database is temporarily accessible via an Excel file which is constantly evolving and available on Google Drive at the link at the top of the page.
However, you have to know that there are hundreds of thousands of car models in the world, and a whole life would not be enough to create a complete database (the calculation is easy to do…), so it will limit to the most popular sports cars and those of PerfectPower users, thank you for everyone’s understanding!
A lot of help is nevertheless given to you in this section, so that you are sure you can get (or have determined by PerfectPower) all the data for your car!
I) Info about the PerfectPower database
II) Help for PerfectPower users (exclusively)
III) Key information on the data to be entered in PerfectPower
I) Info about the PerfectPower database
Each car is identified very precisely by:
- Its full name (make + model)
- Its max power
- Its type of gearbox (M = Manual or A = Automatic followed by the number of gears)
- Its years of production (1st year – last year)
- Its sales market (EUR = Europe, USA = … USA, JAP = Japan, AUS = Australia, WW = Worldwide for the most common)
Some abbreviations are used in the model name: g = generation, p = phase, A = automatic, Q = Quattro, Cab = Cabriolet for the most common.
Each car not only has the 8 basic data to enter in PerfectPower, but also indicative additional data (manufacturer weight and Cd at this moment) whose number may increase over time.
Two car weights are given: the manufacturer weight given as an indication, and the actual weight corresponding to a weighing carried out on a precision scale (typically ± 0.1%) by an independent source (PerfectPower or French automobile magazine), or to the manufacturer weight when none of these two sources is available or the manufacturer weight is considered sufficiently reliable (American cars). In all cases, it is always the actual weight that you must enter in PerfectPower!
Ultimately, the actual weight comes from one of the following three sources:
- PerfectPower (Intercomp SW500 scale, NIST certified ± 0.1%)
- French automobile magazine (UTAC -French private organization of tests and homologation- scale)
- Manufacturer weight (reliable for American cars… but very random for others!)
When several values are available, it is always the lowest which is used as a reference for the sake of homogeneity (car with the minimum number of options).
II) Help for PerfectPower users (exclusively)
If your car is not in the PerfectPower database, you can contact me by email from the application (Email contact button located at the very bottom of the Setup screen) by giving me the make, model, and year of your car, and this one will be added to the PerfectPower database within 24 hours following your request.
Thank you for understanding that the number of cars I can add to the PerfectPower database is limited to one per user, but you will find below a series of links that will help you create yourself your Car sheet in PerfectPower (8 basic data to enter):
Automobile-Catalog (reference database)
CarFolio (no gear ratios)
Cars-Data (no aerodynamic data)
WeightCars (actual weights)
Racing Cars – Aerodynamics (aerodynamic data)
Note 1: The Automobile-Catalog is the most comprehensive automotive database in the world to date, both by the number of cars it contains (hundreds of thousands!) and by the number of technical data for each car (including gear and final ratios as well as aerodynamic data, often very difficult to access)! These data, coming directly from the manufacturer, are then moreover particularly reliable, with the sole exception of weights (explanations given in chapter III) but they are obviously not responsible for that… The only drawback of this exceptional database compared to others is that access to certain data (such as gear and final ratios and the Cd.A) requires payment, but the exception (like PerfectPower!) comes at a price!
Note 2: If you are unable to obtain the Cd.A but you have the Cd and the dimensions of the car, here is an empirical rule (used by the Automobile-Catalog itself) that will allow you to calculate it with correct accuracy (+- 2%) for the majority of cars:
Cd.A = Cd * Width (m) * Height (m) * 0.83
For information, the coefficient 0.83 is an area coefficient corresponding to the ratio of the frontal area of the car (projected area of the car on a vertical plane perpendicular to the car movement horizontal plane) on the full area (Width * Height), and the value 0.83 simply corresponds to the average of the area coefficients of the most popular cars on the market (the majority are between 0.81 and 0.85 ie +- 2%).
III) Key information on the data to be entered in PerfectPower
Data from all databases mentioned in this section being those of strictly original cars, you may need to customize them if your car is not completely original (car weight, tyres dimension, etc). Moreover, here are important notes regarding some of these data:
1) Car weight
- The car weights given in the PerfectPower database (actual weight and manufacturer weight) and in the Automobile-Catalog (manufacturer weight) are systematically weights corresponding to the DIN standard, namely car with all fluids and in particular the full tank of fuel but without occupants or luggages.
- The manufacturer weights are alas sometimes optimistic (and this regardless of the standard used…), and this in a very variable way according to the manufacturers / models, and this is precisely why the PerfectPower database adds the actual weight, and it is one of the only ones in the world to do so! However, one fact is indisputable: this cheating phenomenon is especially true in Europe (in particular in… Germany, that’s the height!), but not in the USA where the manufacturer weights correspond well to the actual weights, so that the actual weights of American cars are copied-pasted from the manufacturer weights in the PerfectPower database!
- The car weights being given with a full tank, remember to take into account the level of fuel present in the car at the time of the measurements! An example: your car is weighed or announced at 1300 kg with the full tank, but you only have half a tank of 60 L ==> you will have to enter 1300 – [(60-30) * 0.75] = 1277.5 kg or 1277 kg rounded (note: calculation with conventional gasoline of average density 0.75).
2) Tyres dimension
- The tyres dimension to enter is always that of the drive wheels, and for a four-wheel drive it is always that of the rear tyres (and whether the fit is symmetrical or asymmetrical).
3) Gear and final ratios
- It is possible with PerfectPower not to have to configure the gear and final ratios by carrying out a procedure identical in all respects to that systematically used on chassis dynamometer: the rev calibration. This therefore means that you don’t have to search for these data, which are by far the most difficult data to find…
- The number of gear ratios has been deliberately limited to 7 in the application, which covers well over 99% of the cars in circulation on the planet, thank you for your understanding! In any case, the power measurements only having to be performed in 2nd or 3rd gear with a serial car, the setting of all the other gears is only used for the performances simulator, and not setting gears 8 and + on a gearbox with more than 7 gears will make absolutely no difference on the results provided by the simulator, with the only possible exception of the max speed.
4) Cd.A
- It is also possible with PerfectPower not to have to configure the Cd.A by choosing to use the losses calculation mode by measure in coastdown for power measurements. However, this procedure is not recommended because of the relative difficulty of implementation on open road, not to mention that it is not possible in any case with an automatic gearbox.