Another way to think of it is your typical diesel engine makes tons of torque but not enough horspower to match. And we all know what a stock diesel does at the track. So like others said torque gets you out of the hole while horsepower keeps you going.

 

LOL... That's right, if torque is zero you can't possibly have any horsepower.

But I think what you really mean is that when you're rock-crawling it's more important to have power at low revs. But in the S2000 it's better to have the power at high revs.

But theoretically, with enough reduction gearing, you can do either. It's just no convenient to have the kind of gearing that puts you at 4000rpm when you're rock-crawling.

 

well technicaly HP and torque have very little to do with eachother other than the fact that HP is a calculation of torque torque * (RPM / 5252) true hp is never NEVER measured only calculated and is never truely correct on a dyno cuz of sooo many factors

 

I find it odd that everyone isnt saying both are important, cause what good is a car with 500hp and 120ft/lbs of torque? Yeah so what if you can get up to 200mph if you get to it in 5 minutes. Ideally you want about a 1:1 hp/torq Its just you dont want so much torque that your tires always spin out. When you think about it, your car really isnt going to its potential if your wheels are still spinning out in 3rd gear.

 

hondas have difficulty with low end torque due mostly to the fact that they are 4 valve engines. a 2 valve engine will of the same displacement will generally have MORE torque at low rpm but make LESS high end power.

J30a is the exception to this rule since it is lacking the 2nd statge of a 3 stage vtec system

 

J30a is also an exception cause its a v6 ^_-

 

Having 500 hp & 120 lbf*ft wouldn't be so bad if you had the right gearing. Trouble is you won't find the right gearing in a normal transmission. That would have to be somewhere above 22,000 rpm. Gas turbine engines ???

Having 'more' torque or 'more' HP doesn't really mean anything, since they're not the same quantity.
And the definition of the units is sorta arbitrary. If we were talking in KW & N*M, this wouldn't be an issue. Or why don't we give power in ft*lb/sec? My Accord has 82,500 ft*lb/sec of power!!

 

IF you take a look at two of the fastest production cars available, the Buggati Vyron and the Hennessey Viper, each has a very flat and massive torque curve, this allows theses cars to reach instane speeds as the torque curve does not fall off until you get way up into the RPM range......

 

why is this even around dident i explain enough for everyone? both matter equaly without one the other is useless... end of story...

and yes gearing matters because when u gear something U INCREASE ITS TORQUE! if u dynoed a car in 1st gear... it would probably flatline any dyno... 400-600 Ft pounds is easily made by ur engine in first gear... 3rd gear is were u dyno ur car... 3rd gear is were it all matters... trust me i work with dynos... im a student at wyotech

 

you might want to study some more.........

having a narrow torque band is useless You ultimate goal is to have a broad flat torque band that covers as MUCH OF THE RPM RANGE as possible. Since HP is a direct relation to RPM and Torque. IF your torque was 100% flat then your HP would raise linearly with RPM.

and gearing does NOT give you more torque, it allows you to make the MOST efficient USE of what torque YOU ALREADY have. The trade off is the speed at which you can drive forward at.

The only time you actually get more torque that what the engine has is when the car is equipped with an automatic transmission and that is 100% due to the multiplication given to you by the torque converter when the car first starts off. (this is the reason why autos are FASTER off of the line than the same car with a MANUAL)