What is the difference between horsepower & torque in regards to what you "feel" when driving?
09-21-2006, 06:05 AM
#12
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There is RPM limited top speed and Aero limited top speed......HP will not help you if you are
limited by your motor not spinning fast enough (gear will though until you become aero limited). If however you find yourself not going any faster and you still have rpms to climb you are aero limited. Add HP or reduce drag to fix that. Gear can also help by moving the torque curve up or down at the wheels. Example in point when you go to a wind tunnel they will often talk about "drag hp" otherwise the amount of hp it will take to overcome the drag your car has at a specific speed (we often scale to 200mph no real reason other than it makes the numbers bigger and easier to deal w/). I tried to keep my previous answer simple, but I guess i over simplified it for some of you.
09-21-2006, 06:17 AM
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Torque allows a car to move heavy objects at a low speed.
HP lets a car move faster under normal circumstances.
Torque lets a car maintain it's accelleration under challenging circumstances (eg. towing, going uphill, overcoming quatto losses etc.).
Torque lets a car maintain it's accelleration under challenging circumstances (eg. towing, going uphill, overcoming quatto losses etc.).
09-21-2006, 03:09 PM
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Summary from Wiki
<center><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/math/2/2/0/2206ee41b3f475da4a57c70bbdd9c61f.png"></center><p>I was curious about this myself a few weeks ago, so I did a little research. It's a difficult concept to grasp, but Wikipedia is helpful:
Wiki's Torque info (edited for brevity):
In physics, torque can informally be thought of as "rotational force".
The concept of torque originated with the work of Archimedes on levers. The rotational analogues of force, mass, and acceleration are torque, moment of inertia, and angular acceleration respectively. The force applied to a lever, multiplied by its distance from the lever's fulcrum, is the torque.
Horsepower:
The horsepower (hp) is the name of several non-metric units of power. In scientific discourse the term "horsepower" is rarely used because of the various definitions and the existence of an SI unit for power, the watt (W). However, the idea of horsepower persists as a legacy term in many languages, particularly in the automotive industry for listing the maximum rate of power application of internal-combustion engines.
Relationship with torque
For a given torque, the equivalent horsepower may be calculated. The standard equation relating torque in foot-pounds, rotational speed in RPM and horsepower is (see image above).
Soooo - basically torque is rotational force, and torque combined with the speed of rotation (rpm) determines how much power is generated by an engine, or how much "work" it can do (overcoming rolling resistance, air resistance, etc) over a period of time.<ul><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torque">Wiki Torque</a></li></ul>
Wiki's Torque info (edited for brevity):
In physics, torque can informally be thought of as "rotational force".
The concept of torque originated with the work of Archimedes on levers. The rotational analogues of force, mass, and acceleration are torque, moment of inertia, and angular acceleration respectively. The force applied to a lever, multiplied by its distance from the lever's fulcrum, is the torque.
Horsepower:
The horsepower (hp) is the name of several non-metric units of power. In scientific discourse the term "horsepower" is rarely used because of the various definitions and the existence of an SI unit for power, the watt (W). However, the idea of horsepower persists as a legacy term in many languages, particularly in the automotive industry for listing the maximum rate of power application of internal-combustion engines.
Relationship with torque
For a given torque, the equivalent horsepower may be calculated. The standard equation relating torque in foot-pounds, rotational speed in RPM and horsepower is (see image above).
Soooo - basically torque is rotational force, and torque combined with the speed of rotation (rpm) determines how much power is generated by an engine, or how much "work" it can do (overcoming rolling resistance, air resistance, etc) over a period of time.<ul><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torque">Wiki Torque</a></li></ul>
