rmt":3k61l7ii said:
Lazy JW":3k61l7ii said:
69.5Mav":3k61l7ii said:
Acceleration means some work is being accomplished in a given time frame. This is properly measured in Horsepower. Torque does zero work.
Joe
I guess no one else will say it, so I will.
WHAT!?
I'll give him an amen. Its like the mathemtician verses the engineer. The mathematicain says it can't be done. The engineer says, yes, but I'll get bl
QQdy close!
Granted, before power was, there must be torque, as power is a dependant variable. Torque is the independent product of the PLAN formula. By dimensional analysis, torque is fundamental, and to dispecne with it is absurd. Nonetheless, hear me out:-
'Maximum indicated Torque ratings' are totally irrelevent to the performance of the car, if the car is geared to suit. Honda, Mazda, Ferrari, Lamborghini proved that years ago. For a 1979 Mazda RX-7 125 HP does 125 hp of work. For a 375 HP car, 375 hp does 375 hp of work. It doesn't matter if the 125 hp car has a 12a rotory engine or 125 hp 250 i6.
Indeed, even an early 375 hp at 8000 rpm 4 litre LP 400 Countach S V12 verses say, a 429 big block yielding 375 hp in a Pantera, 375 hp does 375 hp of work. The Countach has about 268lb-ft of torque at 5000 rpm, the big block could have about 500lb-ft at 3500 rpm.
Power is Torque, with a speed factor. When all is said and done, the 125 hp at 5250 rpm engine with 125 lb-ft torque at 2500 rpm will not beat or loose against the 125 hp at 3500 rpm engine that has, say, 215 lb-ft at 1800 rpm, so long as all else is equal with regard to the car its in, ites weight, its areodynamics, and as long as its gearing is optimised to the power curve.
So a 1979 Mazda RX-7 weighing 2400 pounds will not beat a 250 I6 engine if its in the same 2400 pound car.
The only time torque is of value is when you can't gear a car to suit. A perfect example was a 1982 Mazda RX-7 verses a 5735 cc Chev Z28 at Bathurst, Mount Panarama in 1982. Both cars had the same power to weight ratio, similar drag factor, and yet the Five speed Mazda lost seconds every lap becasue the 4 speed Zee 28 never had to make a third the gear changes the RX-7 driver did. At every other race of the Australian Touring car champoionship, the Mazda romped ahead, but when a 3.85 mile track with 625 feet to climb each lap is used, and the car doesn't have seven gears to cover for the
relative lack of torque, it'll loose everytime. A journalist drove the 350 hp at 8000 rpm Rx-7 racer, and asked the owner, Alan Moffat, how much torque it had. He said, "you've driven the thing, it doesn't have
any". As a mathematician, he was dead wrong, but as a race car engineer, he was dead right.
Seems like most of the youngsters only are interested in shiny wheels and loud pipes though :roll: 
