HP vs Torque!?!

[BlackLT1Z28]

SO what are we talking about again

The definition/relationship/physics/difference/uses of horsepower and torque.

[djvaly]

this thread has been explained in overkill, time to close..

[shady milkman]

[Krazy351w]

hey man ur lock has a defect or something cuz everytime it locks it automatically unlocks again

[djvaly]

thread is closing 3 2 1.... uhh?

[Krazy351w]

[shady milkman]

hey man ur lock has a defect or something cuz everytime it locks it automatically unlocks again

yea must be a diebold lock or something..i hear diebold products always seem to be defective

[Frankthetank]

lol nah its a Ford lock

[shady milkman]

lol nah its a Ford lock

[djvaly]

it is a Cobra lock... it don't work

[Krazy351w]

even better its one of them cheap loks u get outa the quarter machines

[Frankthetank]

even better its one of those cheap things u get out of a honda dealership

[got-a-ls1]

oops, didnr see how old this was, lol anyways:


horsepower sells cars. torque wins races.

An engine only makes torque, thats all you feel, thats all the accelerates the car. All you really need to know about an engine is its torque curve. The higher you can make torque in the RPM's, the more advantage you can make of gearing. (this is horsepower, a calculation).

Lets say you have a engine that makes 400 ft lbs of torque @2500 RPM's peak. Now lets say you have another engine that makes 200 ft lbs of torque @5000 RPM's. The first engine makes twice as much torque but it does it at a really low RPM. If you take advantage of gearing they can both to the same amount of work, or horsepower. The engine that revs twice as high can be geared down 2:1 to the first motor. After the advantage of gearing it now to will be making 400 ft lbs of torque at the "wheels" like the other motor.

So whats that mean... Think of the old TPI motors. Torque up the ass but they ran out of breath way to soon meaning you had to trade torque for speed, or upshift. Everytime you upshift you lose mechanical advantage of the gearing. Race a TPI vs a LS1 and assume for a second they had the same peak torque. The LS1 is obviously higher but still lets assume.

They both take off at the same speed pulling just as hard as each other. The TPI starts to run out of breath but more importantly it runs out of torque. The TPI has lost torque to the wheels because he had to shift and now he isnt pulling as hard. The LS1 is still pulling hard as fuck in first gear when the TPI shifts. The LS1 can take advantage of the mechanical advantage longer then the TPI so it will be faster. This will continue in each gear.

Optimally you want a motor that will make torque down low, in the middle and for as long as possible in the RPM range. The more torque you can make higher in the RPMs, the better off you will be.

Sometimes you cant just have your cake and eat it too. You have to chose where you want to make you torque.This is why most head cam cars you see dont have too much low end torque compared to their highend torque. Making more torque in the higher RPM's is simply faster.