That old saying...Carol Shelby maybe??

"Horsepower sells cars...torque wins races."

My brand new Mustang (a girly 6) has been in the shop for a WEEK now to fix the bad satellite module. They have now replaced every part in the system and are "programming it" whatever that means...

Anyway...they gave me a Fusion V6 for a loaner. I thought I was riding around in a four banger until I noticed the V6 emblem. I figured it must be some baby 6 with 150 hp...to my surprise...it puts out more HP than my Mustang's 4.0! Odd as it feels like I am dragging an anchor around.

Even before my tune, my little 4.0 would really stick your head back against the seat...this thing is a turd (feels crazy cheap too). Now my 6 has LOTS of go!

Cars are the same weight...but the torque numbers are WAY off. So I wonder if Ford sticking the truck motor in the Mustang 6 was indeed a smart move. Everyone seems to get bent around the axle about HP numbers...but here...HP seems to be a non-issue. Maybe we should all discuss torque??

 

yay for torque monsters!

[8D]

 

The Duratec30 only has 10 more hp but the 4.0L has 40lbft more torque, no surprise that the 4.0L feels more muscular. You should try to test drive a Lincoln MKZ with a Duratec35, 263hp and 249lbft. It's a shame they're not putting the Duratec37 in the MKZ, that has 275hp and 276lbft.

 

Yeah that saying is so true. Thats why everyone buys long tube headers instead of shorties. Short tubes dont gain any horsepower, but the lowend torque jumps by 20-30 ftlbs. The bmw 335i'sbeat us even though they only have 300 hp and 300 ftlbs of torque and weigh the same as us. The reason they are so fast is because they make 300 ftlbs of torque from 1300 rpm up to 5500 rpm. Nobody seems to understand its the area under the curve, not peak numbers you should be looking at if you want to be fast.

 

Jahudso2, do you mind clarifying that a bit for me?

Do you mean people buy long tubes because torque wins races? You didn't mean people buy shorties because torque wins races, if shorties are giving you 20-30 ft/lbs of tq?

 

+1 torque monster love. and i htink he means people buy long tubes because they advertise +hp

 

Long tubes do give much better gains on the 4.6L. You're not going to gain 20-30lbft of torque from shorty headers. People seriously underestimate just how well the stock exhaust manifolds flow.

 

anyway, i think we can all agree that the v6 is a great car (i wont trade my CS for it, but its still great)

ford did a great job with the drivetrains on both the v6 and GT

 

[sm=exactly.gif]

They took an off the shelf truck engine and put it in a car that is not only the fastest car for under $20,000 (not anymore though [:@]) but is faster than Almost every Mustang GT from 74-98.

 

It seems like everyone gets horsepower, but few understand something as basic as torque (or horsepower to weight ratio!).

Look at nitrous for example. A 50 hp shot sounds really conservative (and it is!) until you realize that you'll net about 100 ft-lbs of torque! A 75 shot and you're looking at a total of 450 ft-lbs at the wheels. Whew.

http://www.musclemustangfastfords.co.../photo_35.html