Which wins a race
- Thread starter Mook
- Start date
First of all, from a driver's perspective, torque, to use the vernacular, RULES. Any given car, in any given gear, will accelerate at a rate that *exactly* matches its torque curve (allowing for increased air and rolling resistance as speeds climb). Another way of saying this is that a car will accelerate hardest at its torque peak in any given gear, and will not accelerate as hard below that peak, or above it. Torque is the only thing that a driver feels, and horsepower is just sort of an esoteric measurement in that context. 300 foot pounds of torque will accelerate you just as hard at 2000 rpm as it would if you were making that torque at 4000 rpm in the same gear, yet, per the formula, the horsepower would be *double* at 4000 rpm. Therefore, horsepower isn't particularly meaningful from a driver's perspective, and the two numbers only get friendly at 5252 rpm, where horsepower and torque always come out the same.
Power put to the ground is measured in thrust. Thrust = torque X trans ratio X gear ratio. A car with high hp and low torque has a high redline, thus allowing the manufacturers to give it a high gear ratio, like my m3 which has a 4.02 rear end. Cars with high torque and low hp have a low redline, meaning the manufacturer must use a lower rear end ratio, like 3.00. This lowers the amount of thrust to the ground a ton. Do a simple calculation.
We'll take 4th gear, since it is usually a 1:1 ratio. A car like mine with 414 hp and 295 ft/lbs of torque versus my Camaro SS with a 350tq and 350 hp stock (realistic numbers)
SS = 350 X 1 X 3.23 (axle ratio)= 1130.5
M3 = 295 X 1 X 4.02 =1186
Eventhough the Camaro has 60 more ft/lbs of torque, it has 65 less hp. Because of this, the M3 is actually able to put more THRUST to the ground than the Camaro. Make sense?
Totally agree with that. HP allows you to take into account RPMS though, and how long you are able to stay in lower gear longer. Which is faster, a car with 300 ft/bs of torque at 2000rpm that redlines at 3000rpm or a car with 300ft/lbs of torque at 3000rpm that redlines at 4000rpm? The later car will be faster, eventhough they have the same torque, the later car will have more hp and will be faster.
Really? The torque to hp ratio in the ISF is close to 1:1 while the torque to hp ratio in my car is more like 3:4, and the M3 is faster in almost every test.
RIGHT!!! And HP allows you to use better gearing! You can't use that type of gearing in a car that doesn't have a lot of HP.
http://trucks.about.com/od/autobuying/a/torque.htm
Higher torque ratings are more important than high horsepower ratings if you pull a trailer, haul heavy loads or drive on roads with long, steep grades.
If you like to see how fast you can get from stoplight to stoplight -- or if you do a lot of other quick acceleration driving -- horsepower is more important.
Higher torque ratings are more important than high horsepower ratings if you pull a trailer, haul heavy loads or drive on roads with long, steep grades.
If you like to see how fast you can get from stoplight to stoplight -- or if you do a lot of other quick acceleration driving -- horsepower is more important.
But, you can have such a strange combination of both. For the most part, american muscle cars have a lot of torque and a decent amount of hp. Imports usually have low torque high hp, the question comes down to, which ratio is more important when you want speed.
http://www.elephantracing.com/techtopic/hpvstorque.htm
So there it is, torque and horsepower. It seems that horsepower is good for selling cars AND winning races.
So there it is, torque and horsepower. It seems that horsepower is good for selling cars AND winning races.
probably. everything does on here b/c people dont realize that no one agrees on everything....
on a side note, glad to see you're still on the site. uve been around since the beginning and took a lot of shit. kudos to you
Thread Info
-
Created -
128Replies
-
3KViews
-
Participants list
