When is torque faster than hp?

[douglas vincent]

So if one car has 150 hp and 200 torque, and the other has 200 hp and 150 torque, who wins in these three situations

Going down a hill

Going on a straight

Going uphill.

I ask this because I was gaining on a few EVOs today but uphill. I am sure they were all out because a few that were seriously modded definately outran me. I know I don't have what it takes to beat an EVO or WRX/STI in the 1/4 mile, but damn I was catching a few of them up to about 100 going uphill.

So would this be because I have more torque than they do?

This was during a mainly EVO event but there were EVOs, Lancers, SRTs, WRXs STIs a few DSMs, one Audi, one Honda, two vettes and my single lone Legacy Wagon which caused a few EVOs to shake their heads in disbelief. There were over 60 cars starting the drive and only one accident which was a stupididly driven WRX that left the road and got totally lucky he missed the telephone pole by less than 6 inches. Dumbshit. There is driving fast, and there is being an idiot. The two don't have to go together.

[Yukonart]

Going uphill. . . torque will most certainly be the key factor. . .

[Nomake Wan]

I may be wrong... but torque is related to acceleration and horsepower is related to top speed. Meaning the more torque, the harder--and quicker--you pull, and the more HP, the faster you are while pulling.

So in those situations...

Uphill: Torque (Gravity works against torque)
Short Straight: Torque (You need to get up to speed quickly)
Long Straight: HP (You've got plenty of room to get up to speed)
Downhill: HP (Gravity assists torque)

Yeah, I think that's right...

[BAC5.2]

I need to start racing EVO's uphill then

[evolutionmovement]

Anyone ever see Stanley Steamers in action? That's an extreme example of torque vs. HP. You're talking about 750 lbs/ft. (from rest!), but only 30-40 HP (@ >1000 rpm). I saw a 1908 Vanderbilt Cup racer fly up a hill (80 HP and more torque than the dyno could measure). The car can spin the rims inside the tires and he said he's killed modded Camaros over about an 1/8 mile. Beyond that, the lack of horsepower hurts it.

Steve

[FG!!]

200hp wins in all three cases, unless you're in the wrong gear. And don't argue with me

[Nomake Wan]

Quoted from http://www.vettenet.org/torquehp.html:

The Only Thing You Really Need to Know
Repeat after me. "It is better to make torque at high rpm than at low rpm, because you can take advantage of *gearing*."

If you read the page, you'll find that it's a discussion of Torque vs Horsepower.

So if that's the only thing you need to know... *looks around for horsepower and doesn't find it in that category*

[scottzg]

200hp wins in all three cases, unless you're in the wrong gear. And don't argue with me

second.

[evolutionmovement]

If I sell a screenplay for a blockbuster, I'll build a modern Doble-based steam car and blow the doors off all the 200 HP Hondas you can find.

Steve

[dzx]

Horsepower is torque at rpm so if you can maintain any amount of torque at a high rpm, you get a lot more horsepower. Cams work by moving the torque curve up in the rpm range to create more power.

[G-reg]

(Torque x Engine speed) / 5,252 = Horsepower
I don't know where I saw this, the how things work book I had as a kid maybe. But HP and Torque was explained in monkeys...yea, I said monkeys. First the setup: you have a wagon loaded with bricks and a rope attached to the handle, that rope is then held by a viscous team of monkeys. How hard your monkeys can pull on the rope is torque, and how fast they can pull the rope is HP. Stupid, yes but it’s easy to wrap your head around. A Cummins Turbo would be a big motha of an ape, and an S2K engine would be a little howler monkey on crack. BTW you have to redline your howler monkey and drop it to get a good launch.

[dzx]

Example 1: How much torque is required to produce 300 HP at 2700 RPM?

HP = TORQUE x RPM ÷ 5252

so

TORQUE = HP x 5252 ÷ RPM

TORQUE = 300 x 5252 ÷ 2700 = 584 lb-ft.

http://www.epi-eng.com/BAS-PwrTrq.htm

[boostjunkie]

Horsepower is torque at rpm so if you can maintain any amount of torque at a high rpm, you get a lot more horsepower. Cams work by moving the torque curve up in the rpm range to create more power.

Beat me to it!

Yup, hp is the ability to make torque at high rpm. Basically, what you're looking at is the area under the torque curve. The question isn't very specific. What do the torque curves look like? Giving peak hp and torque numbers we'd never be able to answer that question.