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Originally Posted by Tom1222
Torque is really what you feel and Horsepower is a number on a sheet of paper. Sure they are related but when it comes down to it torque is more important because that is what you feel when you accellerate.
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Like I said before, while technically all you "feel" is torque, the torque number on it's own means nothing. If you're making 300 ft*lb of tq, but you're making it at only 2000 rpm, and even though the torque number is REALLY high compared to, say, an Si, guess which car is going to "Feel" faster if the Si is making just 100 ft*lb of torque @ 7000 rpm?
Surprise... it's the Civic!
Know why? Because Torque*RPM is HIGHER for the Civic.
Civic = 100*7000 = 700,000
Other = 300*2000 = 600,000
So, let's figure out the ratio here:
Civic/Other = 700,000/600,000 = 1.16666666 (You'll see the importance of this later)
So, despite the other car's torque advantage, the Civic still FEELS and IS faster at those given points in the powerband, because it is making less torque, but at a much higher rate, so it is faster and feels that way as well.
And guess what? That "Torque*RPM" number, guess what that is equivalent to? HORSEPOWER! The only difference is that Horsepower is arbitrarily THAT number divided by 5252. Why? That's what the person who invented the unit decided, but if you divide both numbers by the same number, they are, for all intents and purposes, the same. So, let's change those to horsepower...
Civic = 700,000/5252 = 133.28256 hp = ~133 hp
Other = 600,000/5252 = 114.2422 hp = ~114 hp
Let's figure out the ratio again... I think most of you probably see where this is going now.
Civic/Other = 133.28256/114.2422 = ~1.1666666
Unsurprisingly, it's the same ratio as before, because we simply divided both numbers by the same number.
So, I'll reitterate what I said above. While TORQUE is the only FORCE actually acting here, it means nothing unless you include RPM, the number of times (or rate) at which you apply that torque number... aka Torque*RPM... essentially, Horsepower.
Think about it like a Flintstones car.
Let's say you've got 2 guys racing their Flintstones cars. One guy "pedals" with 200lb of force (compare to torque), but he can only do it 1 time per second (rpm)... Essentially 200lb/s (horsepower).
The other guy "pedals with only 150lb of force (torque), but he can pedal 2 times per second (rpm)... essentially, 300lb/s (horsepower).
So, despite not PUSHING quite as hard (not as much Torque, persay), the second guy pushes twice as often (double the RPM), so when you multiply the Torque time the Rate (Tq*RPM, aka Horsepower) you get a higher number, so the second guy is going to have the higher average acceleration and is going to win the race... and feel faster, on average, as well.
Again, sorry for the novel, but it's a difficult topic... mostly because of the arbitrary nature of the unit of "Horsepower". I think a lot of the confusion would be eliminated if it we just used Torque*RPM or "Ft*lb*RPMs" or something simple like that
