ddelallata

iTrader: (2)

A wise man once said " horsepower is how fast you hit a wall, while torque is how far you take the wall with you after you hit it ."

99-LS1-SS

Damn, I have never noticed that. I went and looked at my graph and sure enough.

z98

Horsepower is no more bullshit than an foot is. A foot is just an arbitrary unit of measurement. But its bullshit because at one time the foot was based on the length of the kings foot (a totally arbitrary number)?

It doesn't matter what number you give to horsepower (like the metric equivalent) they still describe the same thing. You could make it 5,000 ft/lbs per min and call it man power. It would STILL BE THE SAME THING. Meansuring WORK.

Actually it was more like the average horse would do 20,000 lbs of work per min then multiplied by 50% or so.

Its perfectly accurate, its just as accurate a measurement of torque.

No 4 cyclinders can be faster than 8 cyclinders?

You made my point for me. If your torque curve isn't dropping off at 9000 RPM, you are making 600 horsepower or so. Of course 600 hp is going to be faster than 350 hp.

That's how horsepower works, it is a measurement of actual work being done.

And you'd be almost exactly as fast as the cars making 600 HP @ 6000 RPM, even though they have to shift earlier. Horsepower is WORK, it doesn't matter how or where you make it after you get out of first gear. Of course, there are extreme examples, but IN REAL LIFE, it doesn't matter.

As a test, go get a mid 80's camaro making 300 ft/lbs and 200 hp. I'll get a honda S2000 engine making 150 ft/lbs and 240 hp and stick it in an identical camaro. Then we'll race.

With proper tires, you'll murder me on the launch. But when you shift to second, I'll be still pulling strong (well strong is relative at 150 ft/lbs) in first gear. When you're going to 3rd I'll just be shifting to second with my high redline.

Now look at what's actually happening here:

You have your 300 ft/lbs but you can't rev enough to use it as effectively as me. You'll be shifting to a higher gear and lose your torque advantage because you won't be multiplying it as high as me.

Read the essay posted, it's got really good stuff to help with this.

Hosepower doesn't care what your torque is after you get out of first gear.

Your car accelerates exactly the way your torque curve is shaped, but most people don't race near their torque peak (especially with our cars) because you go faster when you are near your horsepower peak because all that torque multiplied by your gearing is what makes you go faster.

You don't race on the low end.

/ramble