torque or horsepower

[ForcedFirebird]

Wow the wonders of hp and being a measure of ability to do useful work in a given time…..

This. 1hp doesn't mean the amount of work a horse could do in one day, 1hp meant the ability for a horse to move 550lbs amount of weight one foot in the air in one second.

[Wh33lhop]

I gotta go with your mom on this one.



Or Rob.

OP's mom makes a lot of torque when she sits on one end of a small lever.

[delatlanta1281]

People always debate this which is better. Is it torque or is it horsepower. Which would you rather have?

discuss :hitler:

I gotta go with your mom on this one.



Or Rob.

[mrsleeve]

this thread made me :rofl:

the wife is over here asking me why I am laughing so hard I cant speak

[Thizzelle]

U all r very entertaining with your physics and engineering talk

[nando]

digger are you really trying to tell us that torque is a byproduct of horsepower? as mentioned above, the formula for calculating the horsepower of a given engine is to first measure the torque output of the engine, multiply it by the engine's rpm and then divide the sum by 5252.

the key words here are measure and calculated, torque can be measured, horsepower can only be calculated!

if you disagree with the above then I would suggest visiting your highschool and slapping your physics teacher.

actually, I think you failed physics. power is a measure of ability to do work within a given time. torque is just a force, on it's own it doesn't do much. if you have a huge amount of force but it moves very slowly, you can't do as much useful work with it. the work is what we are interested in (how fast your car moves).

when you say you want lots of low end torque you are really saying you want low end power that you can use to accelerate the car (doing work) without having to tach it out to 9k rpm.

this thread is like an argument over which is better - electrons or protons?

[Thizzelle]

But what about deez

[TobyB]

I want a big fat torque curve. and gearing. Infinite gearing.

Although CVT's are boring as shit to drive.

I vote this thread 'bummerforums worthy'.

t

[Mr. Tasty]

Fuel economy.

so torque

[Wh33lhop]

digger are you really trying to tell us that torque is a byproduct of horsepower? as mentioned above, the formula for calculating the horsepower of a given engine is to first measure the torque output of the engine, multiply it by the engine's rpm and then divide the sum by 5252.

the key words here are measure and calculated, torque can be measured, horsepower can only be calculated!

if you disagree with the above then I would suggest visiting your highschool and slapping your physics teacher.

Oh shut up. Possible torque at the wheels at any given speed is a product of the maximum power the engine puts out. That's why an S2000 isn't slow at speed and that's why we rate engines in horsepower and not just torque. Torque is great but without an engine speed to go with it it's irrelevant.

If you are measuring it at the wheels, power is actually easier to calculate than torque, because you don't have to take gearing into account; it's done that for you.

[lukeADE335i]

Who gives a shit?

Most E30s have neither, but they're still tons of fun.

Unless you throw an M30 in there, then you've got enough :)

Took a mate for a spin in mine the other day, and he was blown away by how effortlessly the car pulls in any gear & he's owned plenty of domestic V8s, hot 6's etc.

For a road car the trick is plenty of power at low rpm & a torque curve is reasonably flat across the rev range so the engine is very flexible. For the track, obviously a peaky engine is fine. Horses for courses.

My sister's Hyundai i30 diesel has heaps of torque, at very low rpm but is no fun at all, at any speed. The 4.5L / 100 economy she gets (52mpg) is nothing to sneeze at though ;)

[digger]

digger are you really trying to tell us that torque is a byproduct of horsepower? as mentioned above, the formula for calculating the horsepower of a given engine is to first measure the torque output of the engine, multiply it by the engine's rpm and then divide the sum by 5252.

the key words here are measure and calculated, torque can be measured, horsepower can only be calculated!

if you disagree with the above then I would suggest visiting your highschool and slapping your physics teacher.

what i said was that if i make hp I can generate torque in the output axles through gearing. the torque in drive axle is simply proportional to power transmitted divided by the rpm

Sorry saying one is measured and one is calculated is just useless semantics that doesn’t change the fact that the vehicle with more useable hp in the operating band will win every single time (subject to traction).

Torque at the engine is very misleading without considering rpm, that's why hp is a useful concept to understand. A vehicle with a higher hp engine can always run more aggressive gearing than a vehicle with a lower hp engine and that’s why useable hp wins.

i can take a 100 hp, 100 lb-ft motor operating at 5,252 rpm and gear it to 10,000 lb-ft with a 100:1 gearbox. the consequence is the output rpm lowers by the same ratio to 52.52 rpm.

now i take a 200 hp motor with same 100 lb-ft torque spinning at 10,504 rpm and gear it to same 52.52 rpm which requires a 200:1 gearbox and suddenly i have 20,000ft-lb torque at the output shaft at the same output speed.

Wow the wonders of hp and being a measure of ability to do useful work in a given time…..

think of the output speed as the road speed, so at the same road speed I have twice as much axle torque and therefore twice as much propulsion force and my motor doesn’t even make any more torque it just spins faster and maintains torque.

[CoreyZ]

Petition to rephrase the OP:

Where do you want power? Low end, mid range, top end?

[tom d]

its all about how much hp is available because that is what generates torque in the axles and subsequently the force

digger are you really trying to tell us that torque is a byproduct of horsepower? as mentioned above, the formula for calculating the horsepower of a given engine is to first measure the torque output of the engine, multiply it by the engine's rpm and then divide the sum by 5252.

the key words here are measure and calculated, torque can be measured, horsepower can only be calculated!

if you disagree with the above then I would suggest visiting your highschool and slapping your physics teacher.

[fiveightandten]

this is a stupid question, but we'll forgive you.

torque is real and can be measured and at any rpm, horsepower is not!

horsepower is a made up term and has absolutly no value except for arguing about what is better, horsepower or torque. James Watts (recognize that name?) coined the term so that he could sell steam engines.

horsepower is the amount of work that a horse can do during a work day, so to say that your car has 180 HP means that your car can do the work of 180 horses in one day....seriously?

horsepower is an irrevealant term and the fact that we cling to it like a mother's breast is silly and says a lot about how stupid we are as americans, most of the rest of the world measures a motor's output in watts, not horsepower!

Horsepower was originally invented to compare the power output of steam engines to the amount of work a horse could do. That makes sense in theory, as you'd have to compare the new technology to the old to have a grasp on comparing them.

Though, trying to put a number (even an average over time) to the amount of work an animal can do is utterly ridiculous. There are so many variables, the conversion factor (1HP = 746W) isn't very meaningful when comparing machines to animals. Clinging to this antiquated unit of power measurement this long has clearly gone past the original intent of the term.

That being said, it's been used here for so long that it's clearly made itself relevant. It's probably here to stay until the ICE dies and electric vehicles are all we have. When using it to compare machines to machines, it gets the job done. And quite frankly, it sounds cooler than the "watt"