Just reading what some BMW spokesman had to sayu when bragging about his new engine.

dont know if there is any truth in this.

Specifically relating to F1 cars having less torque tahn my car, but they are fast because of the revs at which it comes in.


Have a look.

 

eh ?

(maybe i'm falling for a late april fool here....)

for example, he says

"The all new designed engine [the M3 engine] will be able to reach as high as 8000rpm, which is the highest revving production engine."

Honda vtec's have been reving to 9K for years, and "production engines" covers 250cc four stroke race bikes which can go to 18000 rpm, etc

then he says

"A high revving engine with precise internals will produce a high torque car"

Utter nonsense. Torque is independant of revs. Power = Torque x rpm.

load of bo**ox

jon

 

That's right -- torque is what gives you the "get up and go" at any RPM. You can have high BHP numbers with f*ck all torque if the revs are high enough: in the 60s, Honda won the 250cc m/c world championships with a 6-cylinder 4 stroke that produced 65bhp at 18,500rpm, and about 15ft-lbs or torque! By the way, it sounds awesome too ... ;-)

It's why Honda cars need revs to really go -- if you've driven an Accord Type R, it needs the revs keeping up but it flies after 5,500rpm.

 

Don't agree about the "8K" quote, or the "A high revving engine with precise internals will produce a high torque car", but he's probably right about the E46 M3 out-torquing a current F1 car.

If an F1 produces 650bhp at 14000rpm, torque (at this engine speed) will be approx 243lbs/ft. Peak torque will not be much higher than this, so an M3 probably does give more.

Refer to Mr Felstead's explanation (or rather his reference to a good explanation) from younks ago for a proper understanding of torque/power and the benefits of each.

Mik

 

I think you have made an even number of errors

Peak power from an F1 engine is more like 800 bhp @ 17,000 rpm. Answer comes out the same though...

 

I think the spokesperson meant it was BMW's highest revving production engine.

Cem

 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Q. Is turbo a good way of making power/torque ?

A. A few companies like to use turbos to produce more power/torque. However, just like large displacement engines, turbos only produce low end power/torque. Besides, powerful turbo charged engines will consume a lot of fuel, more than you can imagine, and their performance will not really catch up to the performance of high revving NA engines.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

hmmm...

 

QUOTE

you will be able to feel the power pushing you from your seat, it's really fun to drive.

UNQUOTE

Surely he means pushing you into your seat or does this car have rear facing seats like the RAF's VC10 or am I missing something?

 

Torque is the thing you need, not BHP!! My little car puts out 288ft/lbs of torque with a flat curve between 1750 rpm and 3500 rpm. Now that's overtaking grunt for ya!

Matt