i went and missed the original debate. though whomever said torque was rongerz. most dudes don't have a good understanding of what "horsepower" actually means, same for torque to a lesser degree.

 

Man! I didn't want to do this again. Here we go. The fact is no torque your not gonna go anywhere. No HP your not gonna go anywhere. Torque is used for getting off the line. HP does the rest. I would personally rather have more torque then HP. There you go. Add or debate if you want.

 

ok we won't since i gots to do some work today. but yeah, 0 of either and the motor is off and yer sitting. however... when does hp "take over" in what you said?

the two descriptors of a motors potential kinda say the same thing, though the context is different. torque is simply the twisting force applied to the crankshaft at a given rpm. hp tells you how much mechanical power & energy you can extract from the crankshaft at a given rpm. the energy is key because it tell you how much load you can place on the motor (via gearing). the 2 (hp, tq) are intricately related - mathematically - since they are mathematical concepts.

there b a reason nobody slaps turbo diesels in pony cars and comes to a drag race.

 

for some reason the old folks tend to think torque is all that matters... I suppose that since hp is derived from torque then of course torque is important, but torque can be overcome with gearing... hp can't. many think torque gets you off the line and hp keeps you going, well I suppose thats the case but I wonder why a lil ole Honda with 120 lbs of torque and 180 hp can get off the line and 60' faster than some mustangs.... that'd be gearing at work. I suppose you can look at a high tq/low hp car as a guy thats big, strong, could pull a stump but takes 8 seconds to run the 40... and a high hp, low tq guy like Carl Lewis who probably couldn't walk with someone on his shoulders but can 40' in half the time as the other guy (then again what good could 180 hp at 8000 rpm do if you were going up such a steep hill that you couldnt get past 2000 rpm because you don't have enough torque! ahh soo confusing eh?)

Bottom line is that torque is NOT an indicator of how much work an engine can do, somebody smarter than I came up with something that does a better job of it than that... I believe he called it "horsepower". <instert Indian American accent: Thank You, Come Again!>

 

This can get very confusing very fast. Torque is gonna get you off the off the line. I don't care what kind of gears you have its not gonna totally replace torque. Torque is what gives you muscle. Horse power takes over from there getting the car up to speed and more HP = more speed. Did we finally settle this?

 

that lil ole honda is light wt hence the good acceration less wt more force key to been quick ...I'd rather be quicker than faster

 

This is a very interesting thread. I wonder if everyone in this thread realizes the dyno measures torque and Hp is calculated based on the torque curve and engine RPM.

Horsepower is torque times rpm divided by 5252 (Torque x RPM / 5252).

If you look at your dyno curves that have HP and torque you will see they are equal at 5252 RPM.

So in all of this, torque is the key factor, where we mess up is using the peak torque and HP numbers when they do not occur at the same RPM. If you raise your torque at any RPM, the HP for that Rpm will go up. If you want to raise HP peak numbers you need to raise the torque curve at high RPMs or you must run higher RPMs.

And for those that compare to Diesel trucks, they only turn ~ 2000 RPM. If they turned 6000 RPM at those Torque values their HP reading would go up by 300%.

 

Torque is a twisting FORCE, which can be measured in lb-ft. Torque can exist without any movement over some DISTANCE.
Horsepower is a calculation of WORK, which is a function of some FORCE applied over some DISTANCE per some unit of TIME.
engines produce torque which can be MEASURED at any given rpm under a load.
horsepower is CALCULATED from knowing the torque and the engine rpm at any given point on the torque curve.
GEARS are used to mulitply TORQUE forces in order to do more WORK (HORSEPOWER) to accelerate a vehicle from a stop.
HORSEPOWER is the calculation of the work done to overcome the forces of aerodynamic drag and friction which resists the TORQUE being applied to accelerate the vehicle or keep it in motion.
'nuff said?????

 

I agree roundy, definatly 'nuff said.

 

thanks for all that but the question has still not been answered. wich will make my car faster on the street a 289 or a 351 stroked or not. thanks