Average Horse Power

[digi]

Well,

Torque is what is moving the car. That  rotational force is driving the
transmission. Horsepower is torque over time. More horsepower doesnt mean
a proportional increase in torque.

If you need 300ft-lbs of torque to move your vehicle, and your engine
outputs 600ft-lbs of torque, then its going to hit 300 a lot faster. So, 
more torque doesnt mean it'll all be used, it'll just get to as much as
it needs quicker.

The rate at which it acheives torque is horsepower, torque over time.

Thoughts?
I really dont know what I'm talking about so splease correct and don't
fflame.

- Brian

On Wed, 15 Dec 1999, Andrew Wakeling wrote:

> Hiya all,
> 
> Right, NOW I know why people didn't want to go here... but anyhow, the
> point I was trying to make, in my ORIGINAL message... before all this
> stuff was...
> 
> Well, firstly, I DID forget to mention torque, and YES, it does play a
> significant role in engine performance etc.
> Just for books:
> 
> Torque = Force x Displacment
> 
> OR
> 
> Torque = Force x Distance
> 
> Now, my original proposition, was that... NEITHER maximum Torque nor
> maximum Horsepower matter towards the final quarter of a mile time.
> Here's why...
> 
> Ok, back to the dynometer graphs. If you take a look at a couple of
> graphs from many vehicles from dynos and stuff, you find that it DOES
> take time to reach the maximum horsepower, and it also must reach it via
> a certain pathway. Now, this is the key factor... If the graph tends to
> rise quickly and then reach the maximum horsepower, you'll find the car
> will perform quite well. If the graph does not a rise for a while, and
> then reach maximum horsepower, the car will not perform as well as the
> previous car.
> 
> The final result, is we are dealing with the AREA of the graphs. If a
> dyno run has a greater area, it will tend to have a greater AVERAGE of
> horsepower, than a car with a similar horsepower range with a graph with
> a smaller area. Of course mass also plays a significant role, and
> basically your final result is:
> 
> Constant = Average Horsepower / Mass
> 
> This constant, I reckon, should be the type of constant we should use,
> instead of "my car produces 500 hp" etc. The dyno runs are fun and all,
> but seriously, people are learning that they can design cars to produce
> bigger MAX horsepower by transferring the torque range to a higher rev
> range, or by other methods such as turbocharging or supercharging, BUT
> all this added horsepower doesn't relate back to GETTING to that point,
> or in other words, the AVERAGE performance of a car... which I believe
> is what we're ALL looking for. I guess that the constant above is really
> just the quarter a mile times, but without all that slipping and human
> error. This also assumes that the dyno run was accurate and stuff.
> 
> Anyway, enough of the babble, and back to the garage... just remember,
> AVERAGE is better than MAX...
> 
> Andrew Wakeling
>