I understand the UK turbo lacks torque compared to some cars (ie WRX turbos, Golf 1.8 turbo). What is meant by this? What difference will this make in day to day driving?

Think you may have understood wrong!

Older UK turbos are quite laggy, but UK cars have wayyyyyy more torque than the VAG1.8 turbo.

Not sure about the differences between UK cars and WRXs (which have more quoted torque)

No doubt some of the experts on the BBS will advise http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/cool.gif (and no doubt some of those who THINK they are experts will chip in as well http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/tongue.gif

Cheers

D

D

I'm not sure that I agree that the UK turbo lacks torque. The MY 00 is rated at 214 lb ft which is relatively high versus the power output of 211 bhp.

In answer to your first question, torque is the pulling power of the engine and whilst it varies with the revs, it is not dependant on engine revs. BHP is factor of both revs and torque.

As far as what difference it makes to everyday driving, high torque means that the engine will pull strongly from low revs. This means that you won't need to change gear so often when going uphill or overtaking.

I hope this makes sense. I'm sure someone else will come up with a more technically advanced answer.

D.

Torque drives cars.....BHP sells em.

You never hear people down the pub saying "my Escorts got 230lbs/ft of torque...." do you ??

Ro.

Yep, torque is the real deal.

Its turning force developed by the engine, and is crucial for accelleration.

Turbos excel at it as do large displacements.

Small non tubos engines develop high BHP by revving highly but tend to have poor torque- see integra type R.

The Golf VR6 was marketed in Germany on the strength of the amount of torque it had.

Don't think it'd work over here ... 200 lb/ft of torque? What's that then? How many cup holders has it got?

A.

I love torque. 240lb/ft of the stuff - luverly. It's just that pull you get from low-revs - mmm.

The pre 98 cars had the phase 1 engine which (in the example that I tested) did not seem to pull very well in 4th and 5th gears. From 98 the engine was replaced with the Phase II which pulls VERY WELL INDEEDY in all gears. The figures quoted are always peaks and so to get a better idea of how one car will go compared to another you should look at the torque graphs which ideally should be high and flat.

As a last resort you could always test drive the cars concerned!!!

I test drove a 97 a few months back -seemed very good. Bit late for anymore testdrives as I pick the car up in two weeks.

Thanks for all the info guys.

I also don't really understand torque either! If torque is so good - why aren't we all driving diesel cars? They seem to have bags of it!

Most diesels don't perform well because the torque curve takes a dive as revs increase. The peak torque occurs at low revs but falls dramatically as revs rise. Since bhp is calculated by multiplying torque by revs (and another constant which I can't remember), the bhp in a diesel does not rise with revs as it would in a petrol engine (which usually has a flat torque curve).

Acceleration therefore depends on both torque and bhp.

D.

[This message has been edited by DJB (edited 03-03-2000).]

[This message has been edited by DJB (edited 03-03-2000).]

Excellent website at

If torque is so good why isn't a 190 bhp Corrado VR6 with 180 lb/ft significantly faster than a 187 bhp Integra with approx 130 lb/ft even though it has more torque?

The answer is that a torque figure is meaningless on its own and tells you very little about the performance that will result,where as a bhp figure tells you a lot more

An engine may well be able to supply 215lb/ft of torque but if it can only turn the output shaft once per minute it would be of little use and the power supplied would be very low
If on the other hand the engine could turn the shaft 4000 times per minute while still providing 215lb/ft of twist then a lot more work could be done and the power supplied would be much higher,in fact 4000 times higher.

The bhp figure is simply the torque figure multiplied by the number of times it can be applied in one minute.
It is a true measure of the amount of energy the engine can provide the car with and hence gives a much better idea of the performance that will result

The Corrado may have more torque but it is developed at lower rpm's than in the Integra so the power supplied and the amount of work done is the same in both cases and the performance is similar.

As a side note, if you look at Paul's dyno site