Thread: Whats better horses or torque?

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With a street car torque is king. Basic term's, torque get's a car moving, and horse power keep's it moving. Not to mention torque is cheaper.

Hoserpower is a function of torque that relies on high rpms. How you want to build your engine depends on a great number of things.

In aperformance build, the torque almost comes naturally with these engines; if I had a Cobra kit car, I'd like it to rev/have some peak power too, even though it would certainly be ahandfull in a little car like that.

That being said, you don't need to generate massive horsepower to be quick and/or fast.

Paul

Originally Posted by Paul Kane

Hoserpower is a function of torque that relies on high rpms. How you want to build your engine depends on a great number of things.

In aperformance build, the torque almost comes naturally with these engines; if I had a Cobra kit car, I'd like it to rev/have some peak power too, even though it would certainly be ahandfull in a little car like that.

That being said, you don't need to generate massive horsepower to be quick and/or fast.

Paul

His car weighs so little that it would be a rocket with 300 horsepower.

Here is the formula used to estimate quarter mile performance:

Cube root(weight/power) x 5.825

If his engine is making 350 horsepower at the flywheel, he has a 12 second car. If it's making 400 at the flywheel, he's got a mid 11 second car. If he's got 470 at the flywheel, he's got a high ten second car.

Regardless of how much power he's making, he's got a beautiful car that's a blast to drive.

Originally Posted by Ron B.

With a street car torque is king. Basic term's, torque get's a car moving, and horse power keep's it moving. Not to mention torque is cheaper.

This is absolutely incorrect. Horsepower is the rate of energy transfer in the engine. Energy transfer moves the car. Horsepower gets a car moving and keeps it moving. Why? Because motion is factored into the equation and torque doesn't describe speed. It's only when combining torque with engine speed (horsepower) do we get any meaningful numbers for how fast a car will move. A 300 horsepower car with 200 lb-feet of torque will always be faster than a 200 horsepower car with 300 lb-feet of torque. It's all about looking at the right dimensions.