lpitt

People keep talking about cars in terms of BHP/Torque. Now, I understand what these figures are and what they mean in generic terms but how are they applied to individual cars?

For example:

MY00 Impreza Turbo: 215BHP/214ft/lbs
MY01 Civic Type-R: 197BHP/145ft/lbs

The Civic has similar BHP but is over 50ft/lb down on torque, yet in spite of this the Scooby won't exactly slaughter it. Does the gearbox make a big difference here? My CTR will pull in 6th at 40mph the Scooby used to complain at 40 if I changed to 5th?

How much of the 214 that the Scooby has is lost via the 4WD? If we had a graph that 'equalised' all cars how would it look?

I won't be surprised to get no answers to this but it's been puzzling me for a while now and at least I've got it off my chest

Laurence

Hey! I just noticed that this was my 500th post. Happy 500th to me!

[Edited by lpitt - 4/2/2002 9:56:09 PM]

logiclee

Laurence,

Weight, power, torque, gearing and drag(mechanical and aerodynamic) all play their part.

A scoob has similar torque to an F1 car and less power than most Scania tractor units. Figures don't mean anything in isolation.

Have a look at This Link for a good explanation of the relationship

Cheers
Lee

lpitt

Thanks Lee,

I now understand the whole thing. This article is great.

Laurence

simes

Superb article, clarified things even for a thickie like me

mik

Your cheques are in the post guys

lpitt

Just re-read it. I know understand how the VTEC performs, and why the iVTEC in my car is such an improvement.

Great.

logiclee

Hi All,

The link was posted a few days ago in another thread by Mik.

Its one of the simplest explanations of the relationship between power and torque that I've come across.

Cheers
Lee