HP or TQ
 

If you had a choice with your car, would you build it for more torque or more horsepower?

My friend and his wife both have Supra's. His has 150 more torque than hers. Hers has 200 more hp than his. His kicks ass all day long. He insists that it is more important to build a car for torque than it is for horsepower.

Which should you be more concerned with?

Give me Torque... Hence the reason I bought a mustang.. :D Torque is fun.

Torque wins races. ;)

torque is nice for burnouts, but horsepower sells cars, and essentially can win races too

hp is just a calculated number based on tq and engine speed. i'll take tq next time around :D

Why not have both..

Why not, indeed? Like Chris said, horsepower is just a mathmatical equation based on torque and engine rpms. You can figure out an engine's hp simply based on the PLAN equation. It's something like this:

P = working pressure of cylinder(s) in psi
L = length of stroke (in feet, not inches)
A = total area of the pistons in sq. inches
N = number of power strokes per minute

So then HP = PLAN/33,000. See? I didn't even have to build a damn motor and I can tell you how much horsepower it'll make. Torque is simple...it's easy. It's not a mathematic equation. All things considered I'd want both, but if I had to build for one more than the other, I'd take torque.

for sure build on both, but If I had to choose probably more torque

i thought hp was (tq*rpm)/5252. the PLAN dosnt take some other factors into consideration that should also effect an engines hp output.

whats up with all the useless threads IA?

Yeah...the general equation is (tq*rpm)/5252. But to figure that you first have to know how much torque you're making. PLAN is usually used in factory settings where everything is more or less the same and you don't need to factor in things like valve size, shrouding, etc. It does *sort* of cover that...as things of that nature will usual effect working cylinder pressure. But it's just sort of a baseline equation.

pointless im learning something ^

All of the TQ > HP people who have Hondas. :D

jk

;)

a lack of low end torque can be made up w/, by choosing proper gearing(for the most part) Horse power can't.

True...but that will limit the car's performance once the speedo goes north. Taller gearing will eventually shorten gears.

true, it all depends on what the car is for i guess.

Exactly. But I suppose someone with enough experience could find a good balance as well. It all depends on how much of a deficit you're working with.

i'll take hp. being fast off theline doesn't doo anything for me, and i am not taking the turns slow ;)

I want my cake and i wanna eat it too.. both

So narrow minded... Whats wrong with having Power and handling.. :D

Besides big nasty burnouts are fun!;)

You can make any car handle.. they developed a frame and suspension that makes me 57 chevy out handle most.

This question is one that needs to be answered by another question....What are you gonna do with that car? But then it gets complacated with the set up your using. RWD or FWD....Then you have to think...Do I want a honda that runs 11's (more than likely HP) Or do I want a stang (or other rwd) That stands up when I hammer it? (TQ)....But having both is more desirable ;)

front wheel drive with too much torque sux anyway. i just want about 550 whp and 300 ft/lbs of tq on my little 1.9L

Horsepower is a pretty useless number if you think about it. What is important, on the other hand, is high and low torque. Torque is what you feel and what pulls the car around. When you build for horsepower, what you're more or less doing is building for high end torque. High end torque is always better in track racing situations because you can keep your revs up by downshifting and get a big surge of power. If you have torque at low revs, there's not much you can do to keep it in that band unless you want to shift at about half your rev limit, which would kind of defy the point of racing in the first place... Drag strips and street racing are a different story though. For that I'd say good mid-range torque. It's the best balance since you're going through the entire rev band and won't be downshifting.