With a guy at work.

Which figure is the one that "puts you back in the seat" and makes you feel power from the engine? The HP number or the torque number?

Example engine:
GMPP 330 HP @ 5000 RPM, 380 ft.lbs. Torque @ 3800 RPM.

 

Torque....

 

I second that...

 

Third

 

fourth

 

Drive a Big Block and ask that question again.

Torque....plain and simple

 

torque. You can be a great sprinter, however if you're on ice..... see what we mean?

 

HP = Torque * RPM / 5,252

 

Torque gets you going from standing, HP keeps you going

 

Help me solve an argument.
With a guy at work.


I hope your side of the dispute was was torque...

 

yer crackin me up.....

 

Yeah. My argument was that there really is no way to measuer HP in the first place. HP numbers are just 'calculated' by using the formula
torque x rpm / 5252 = HP.
I think he is confused and comparing acceleration to horsepower. I've tried to explain that horsepower is important in being able to keep an engine in it's happy torque curve, but it is not an accurate way to measure how "strong" an engine really is without examining its torque values.
I'm sure this subject has been beaten into the ground a hundred times.

 

torque+HP= go fast, who could be wrong as long as your pinned in the seat, have a beer.

 

HP sales cars, TQ wins races...it's like in football, Offense sales tickets, Defense wins games.

 

Does your Co-worker drive a Honda with an 8" tail pipe?

 

 

Torque limits/enhances acceleration and HP limits/enhances top speed.
In simple terms, that's the way I've always understood it.

 

Its all about torque. Gee....I think everybody mentioned that already.

 

Horse power!













I'm sorry i just wanted to be diffrent :o

 

Torque puts you back in your seat. But so does power. In the end, an engine can be rated by either its torque curve or its power curve. Given one, it's very easy to generate the other. They are not opposing measurements, but different ways of characterizing the same thing. Each is good for different things (but again, the same information is contained in both if you look hard enough).

For example, looking at a torque curve allows you to easily see how a car's acceleration changes within a given gear. Is it strong at low rpm or only high up?

But the actual numbers on the torque curve aren't very useful (at least at first glance). The reason is that the torque that accelerates the car is not quite the torque you get from a dyno curve. It is multiplied by the gears in the transmission and differential. Varying these, the car's peak acceleration at a given speed can be anything at all up to a particular limit.

That limit is determined only by the peak power that the engine can produce. Power does does not change from gearing. The fastest driver will keep the engine as close as possible to the power peak. The (peak) power to weight ratio is the single best (simple) number that characterizes a car's performance. The value of the peak torque is pretty much irrelevant, though. But its position is important for driveability/"feel."

There are some small caveats to all this, but this post is already getting long enough. There was also a very long thread about this in the C6Z06 section a few months back.