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Thanks for the replies. Aerohead, if my power source were theoretically perfect and provided smooth torque, I'd agree that the power at the flywheel could vary infinitely and not be seen by this scheme. But in that case I'd have no need for a flywheel. In reality, my power source is a 4 cylinder engine with a power impulse every 180 degrees. As you know, the flywheel stores energy between power impulses and since the flywheel is a fixed mass I think I should be able to measure power by measuring the relatively imperceptible acceleration and deceleration of the flywheel itself. This is the same basic idea as the scheme that janvos39 mentioned, but applied to the flywheel. Varying loads will not be a problem and I'm pretty sure it would work perfectly on something like a boat with a fixed prop where the load looks purely resistive. But as you mention, almost all of the mass is in the vehicle itself and I'm unsure how this will affect it. My hunch is that it won't be a problem...
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