IT is true that the 05 6spd has 10 lb less torque but torque is not that important. The significance of higher torque is essentially that you have more hp at lower rpms. That does help some, but once you get that car into 6k rpm torque does not really matter, it is all about max hp. And of course it will only take a fraction of a second to get the g35 into the 6k's.

 

Uhhh... no.

You're not completely wrong, but it's definitely not all about max HP.

Torque is essential when it comes to drag racing because the most critical part is your launch. The first 60 feet of a race will make or break your time. You could try to launch at 6k rpm, but you won't.

From observations at the track '05s run practically the same times as '03s and '04s.

 

Torque is exceedingly important. Horsepower is actually a measurement of work while torque is a measurement of force. I found this article very helpful in understanding the difference.

http://vettenet.org/torquehp.html

 

I agree that torque is most important, in general, at a 1/4 mile track.

When I took my CLS to the track, the thing would take awhile to get moving and then scream when it got to VTEC. But, it just felt like it took forever to get there.

The G, when launched well, gets up to speed real quick. It dies up top, but by that time you probably have the race won if you utilized the full potential of the 270lb/ft of torque available in the G.

 

Hey Guys,

I think it's fair to say that both torque and horsepower are both important since they are a direct function of each other. Torque gets the momentum going and horsepower keeps it building. One of the strangest vehichles I've seen is the Honda S200 which is very close to the 1/4 mile time of the G. Here is a little screamer that has 242 horsepower@7800 rpm with only 162 foot pounds of tourque @6500 RPM. The car weighs only 2835 pounds though. The speed is a function of many things. The weight, gearing, the drive train and of course the traction and the driver. Any one of these things can greatly effect the performance of the car.

RJG35

 

If you do that, your transmission will be toast.

 

Torque is everything to me.

 

Simple but not complete analogy I used to tell people that asked about the difference between HP and TQ was that HP is how fast you can go, and TQ is how fast you get there.

 

I've been driving around and relized how delayed it is-- I had just gotten used to it, I shift before I want to and then it hits it at the RPMS I want it to.

/shrugs-- I like that AT =).

 

You are probably right, I do not have much experience in drag racing. But just to be pedantic I would like to point out that my exact statement was "ONCE you get to 6k rpms then it is all about max hp" and that is technicaly correct

But yeah, you are probably right that since the 1/4 mile is such a short distance the low RPM horsepower of the car is cruicial, and thus higher torque will help.

 

Ok the person that wrote this page is VERY confused. Especially his saying that:

"Any given car, in any given gear, will accelerate at a rate that *exactly* matches its torque curve "

and

"Another way of saying this is that a car will accelerate hardest at its torque peak in any given gear, and will not accelerate as hard below that peak, or above it."

Are just plain false. I know he has a corvette webpage and he probably wishes they were true but they are not.

Jst try racing a friend with the same car and have one person keep the car in max torque rpm (4k for the g) and the other in max power rpm (6.5 k for the g). Guess what the max power guy will win hands down.

And if you dont feel like racing just watch formula 1. Some times they show you the RPM of a car they are following with the camera. You will notice that the driver always keeps the rpm close to the redline, because thats where max power rpm are. Max torque rpm are usually somewhere in the middle.

I mean of the G accelaretes hardest at 4k rpm, why would they go trough the costs of designing an engine that revs so smoothly all the way to 7k rpm?

SO in conclusion power makes your car go, accelarate, etc. Torque is used simply as an indication of a cars ability to make decent power at lower RPM.

 

That's because the s2000 probably makes that torque all through the power band. It's more important how long you make the torque for accelerating (up to a certain point obviously because at some point you could make so much torque that when it drops off it is still higher than the torque the s2000 would be making). Peak HP basically tells you how well the torque curve is holding up.


EDIT, in responce to the post above, Formula drivers keep it at high rpms to keep the speed they are going, obviously lower rpm would mean they would be going slower (if we are talking about the same gear). Keeping it high also allows them to downshift and still be inside the peak torque range. HP does not determine how you accelerate, torque does. The hardest acceleration is at the peak torque and the reason you keep going is because the torque stays around that point for a while. It would be very ineffectient to have say, 400 gears and shift every 500 rpm after the peak torque to drop it back to the peak... you'd spend about 300 seconds shifting, instead of shifting a 5 or 6 times and only spending 3-4 seconds shifting, thus accelerating faster due to the time spending accelerating (albiet at a slower rate but for a longer period of time 4000rpm to 6500rpm basically in an 04 G). Sorry my post doesn't follow too clearly, but if you hit me up on aim (paulertheballer) I'll try to explain it better.

 

I'm not trying top be argumentative but the torque band is the true power of the engine. HP is a result of Torque and RPM's At your peak
HP that doesn't neccessarily mean that this is where your engine is strongest it simply means that this is where the engine is most efficient at producing useable power (if that makes sense). Thus the engine will pull hardest at it's peak torque. How much HP you produce at peak will depend on how long you can keep producing a sufficient amount of torque. The reason why a car goes faster at its peakHP is simple because the RPM's are higher so you can't really compare or race two cars with one being at peak torque and the other at peak HP- if it's the same car, you will be at two different speeds when the race begins.

 

"At your peak
HP that doesn't neccessarily mean that this is where your engine is strongest it simply means that this is where the engine is most efficient at producing useable power (if that makes sense). "

I am not sure I follow you here.

"Thus the engine will pull hardest at it's peak torque."

Well this statement is true if taken literaly ... i.e. if you could go beneath the hood and grab the measure the force at the drive train before it reaches the gear box, then yes the engine will pull the hardest at max torque rpm. But what we all care about is when the CAR pulls the fastest. And this is at max power RPM.

"How much HP you produce at peak will depend on how long you can keep producing a sufficient amount of torque. "

That is correct because power=torque.RPM (with some random constant thrown in for fun)

so if you keep producing good torque as the RPM get higher you get a lot of HP.

"The reason why a car goes faster at its peakHP is simple because the RPM's are higher"

I did not say a car goes faster at peak HP I said it accelerates faster at peak HP. And it does so because it has the most HP at that point

"race two cars with one being at peak torque and the other at peak HP- if it's the same car, you will be at two different speeds when the race begins"

Well you could both start at a stop. Then car 1 will upshift at 5k rpm and car 2 will upshift at 7k rpm.

 

I also have to really wonder what this statement means? Are you saying when you get to higher rpms that torque just magically stops being an indication of how well a car makes power??? What is the determining point where you stop using torque to indicate the cars ability and start using HP? What you said is illogical since it implies a change in definition of terms at a certain magical rpm.