Torque?

[asndragonboii]

What does torque feel like in a vehicle? How can i distinguish it from HP by the feel of driving?

[Skylinegtr06]

Yup, well it kind of depends

The Tc has 160 hp and 161 lbs
The Si has 197hp and 135lbs

higher torque doesnt really equal a faster car

[sgtpruitt]

Go drive your honda. Then go test drive a ford f250. Then drive your honda again. Then you will know.

[sheek360]

Originally Posted by sgtpruitt

Go drive your honda. Then go test drive a ford f250 SUPER DUTY. Then drive your honda again. Then you will know.

fixxed it 4 ya LOL

iirc u cant feel hp, only tq....

[dgs]

Torque is something we don't have. I'm convinced Honda corp doesn't think torque is a good thing because hardly any of their vehicles have it. I wish the SI did have torque, it would make an already fun car even more fun.

If Volkswagen had the reliability of Honda I would have purchased a GTI instead of this SI. If you want to know what torque feels like good test drive a GTI and then get back in your SI and you'll know what torque is.

[sgtpruitt]

Originally Posted by sheek360

fixxed it 4 ya LOL

iirc u cant feel hp, only tq....

LOL, ok that's a better example I guess. I knew someone would do that!

[sheek360]

Originally Posted by dgs

Torque is something we don't have. I'm convinced Honda corp doesn't think torque is a good thing because hardly any of their vehicles have it. I wish the SI did have torque, it would make an already fun car even more fun.

i know what ur saying man, funnest tourqy car ever = cooper s. man that thing is so ratty!

[asndragonboii]

Well i've driven alot of GM cars because i work at a rental company.

I've driven the Caddy DTS and that bizznitch has 300 footpounds of torque and 275 hp. When i floor it, i say, "gee that's a fast car!"

But i dont know if what i feel is torque or whatever whatever...........

[sheek360]

Originally Posted by asndragonboii

Well i've driven alot of GM cars because i work at a rental company.

I've driven the Caddy DTS and that bizznitch has 300 footpounds of torque and 275 hp. When i floor it, i say, "gee that's a fast car!"

But i dont know if what i feel is torque or whatever whatever...........

ummm the "getting pushed back in the seat instantly" thing is the tq.

[sgtpruitt]

Well you know how when you take of in a Honda it takes a second to get going fast. That's lack of torque. Power comes from the high end. Cars with a lot of torque get going quicker. My Maxima took of like a rocket. So what you feel from the launch in that caddy is torque. Caddy's are really heavy though.

[asndragonboii]

Originally Posted by sheek360

ummm the "getting pushed back in the seat instantly" thing is the tq.

okay =D
Now i understand!!!

How would it feel to be in a car with very little torque and very high horse power
as opposed to
very high torque and very low horsepower

[Chase]

well Drive a FI honda... No Torque but shit tons of HP..

Torque is just a measure of how much work can Be done with Said horsepower. Torque is a twisting force.

[sheek360]

Originally Posted by asndragonboii

How would it feel to be in a car with very little torque and very high horse power
as opposed to
very high torque and very low horsepower

best comparison would be a stock si and a stock srt4.

jsut cuz ur SI is lacking torque and it takes to long to peak doesnt mean its slow. its just gonna take a good amount of massaging to get er going. the only thing thats holding u guys back is a/f and timing tuning.

[sheek360]

Originally Posted by Chase

well Drive a FI honda... No Torque but shit tons of HP..

Torque is just a measure of how much work can Be done with Said horsepower. Torque is a twisting force.

couldntve said it better myself, my stang showed it needed ladder bars.... on the track.... very embarrasing man

[dgs]

Originally Posted by sheek360

best comparison would be a stock si and a stock srt4.

jsut cuz ur SI is lacking torque and it takes to long to peak doesnt mean its slow. its just gonna take a good amount of massaging to get er going. the only thing thats holding u guys back is a/f and timing tuning.

It's not slow but it's not fast either. I guess fast is a relative term, I mean it's faster than most of the cars in its class but I would not classify this car as fast by any stretch of the imagine. The Honda S2000 is fast, the Civic SI is average.

I wish Honda had given this car 50 more ft lbs of torque. It would have made it much more fun in daily driving. It's easy to get caught in the wrong gear in this car and it just bogs. I enjoy the car a lot, the handling is great, the interior is comfortable, the sound system kicks ass, and it looks really good too. But unless you're revving the car to 8K RPM's it's really not anything special. Unfortunately much more of my driving is done in the lower range of the tach. I drive a congested freeway back and forth from work every day, and even running errands like going to the grocery or shopping there is no need to go nuts. But I love the honda reliability and everything else about the car.

I will not keep this one more than about three years, which after that point all of the high revving and zero torque is going to get old. I'm thinking the new 08 Accord V6 coupe with the 6-speed manual will be a nice upgrade from this Civic. In three years Honda will have worked out the bugs, and dealers won't be price gouging anymore. I would have preferred a sedan but Honda isn't making the V6 MT sedan anymore. From the rumors the new V6 will have about 270HP. That is going to be a fast car. The current Accord V6 6-speed coupe is already a low 14 second car stock, the new one will be in the mid 13 second range no problem. Torque and horsepower here I come, can't wait!

[Izzy]

I guess you can call torque the pushing force of the car. With the Si, you know you have to drop a couple cogs to really quickly pass someone, because our torque doesn't spike up until near/into VTEC changeover. Drive a car with a lot of torque, and you don't have to drop a gear or two -- the power to push the car forward is already there. I know I have to drop at least one gear in my car, but with a friend's 'Lude, I could just stay in gear and pass. Torque, not horsepower, makes that happen. More Work gets done.

[Blainestang]

All you EVER feel is torque, actually, but that's a little deceiving, because how hard it FEELS like you're accelerating is based on HP, not torque. That's because the torque number, on it's own, means NOTHING. In order to really know anything, you have to know the RPM at which that Tq is being produced because that tells you basically how often you are producing that tq... essentially, Horsepower.

The reason a Torquey car feels faster at low RPM is because it's making more Horsepower. Let's say your Si is making 100 ft-lb of tq @ 2000rpm. Well, all else being equal, a car making 200 ft-lb of tq @ 2000rpm is going to feel roughly TWICE as fast. Why? Because it's making that torque at the same rate, but it's making TWICE as much as you each time. Make sense? Let's put it into the HP equation...

HP = (TQ*RPM)/5252

HP (Civic) = (100*2000)/5252 = 38 hp
HP (Other) = (200*2000)/5252 = 72 hp

Surprise... it's DOUBLE!


Now, let's say you're still making that 100 ft-lb of torque, but now you're @ 6000rpm, and the other guy is still @ 2000rpm. He's STILL making TWICE as much torque, but you're making your tq 3 times as often as he is... so let's see what happens.

HP (Civic) = (100*6000)/5252 = 114 hp
HP (Other) = (200*2000)/5252 = 72 hp

All else being equal, guess who's faster? I'll give you a hint... NOT the guy making more Torque. Know why? He's not making it nearly as often as you are. I have to explain this to people who think "Torque is EVERYTHING" all the time. Fact is, Torque means NOTHING without knowing how often you're making that torque... aka RPM. On the other hand, people with high RPM engines like to think that RPM means everything. Sorry, it doesn't, either. RPM means NOTHING without knowing how much Torque you're producing every time. So, to make it easy on everyone, we've got a special unit that combines BOTH Torque and RPM... Horsepower.

So, all you TECHNICALLY "feel" is torque, but just as important as the torque number is how many times you "feel" it.

TONS of torque even with low RPM = good HP = "Feels Fast"
TONS of RPM even with low torque = good HP = "Feels Fast"

And you know what both of these "Fast feelings" have in common? Lots of HP.


Sorry for the novel... Hope that helps

[rmfa]

+1 rep to that ^^^

[Tom1222]

Originally Posted by asndragonboii

What does torque feel like in a vehicle? How can i distinguish it from HP by the feel of driving?

Here is a good link about a detailed explanation of torque and HP.

http://vettenet.org/torquehp.html

[Blainestang]

Originally Posted by Tom1222

Here is a good link about a detailed explanation of torque and HP.

http://vettenet.org/torquehp.html

I have to disagree with a LOT of that explanation...

If you DO read that, you really should read THIS POST as a follow-up.

It's a post of mine from the last time someone pointed out that vettenet explanation.