Horsepower vs size of the engine also determines reliability. Toyota Corollas with ~100 horsepower will go over 500k miles with just oil changes. Drag race engines with over a thousand horsepower have to be completely rebuilt after every race. High horsepower without torque won't get you off the line quickly, but you'll be able to do 50-80mph in a hurry (like a weed-whacker or a Japanese street bike).Īs far as reliability goes, it's generally inversely proportional with horsepower. High torque without horsepower will help you accelerate quickly initially and pull heavy loads, but you won't go fast (like an 18-wheeler or a tractor). You need a good mix of horsepower and torque to have a fast car. Horsepower is the application of this torque over time. Torque is simply a measure of the twisting force the engine creates as it spins, the engine's ability to turn the driveshaft and tires, making the car actually move. Basically, this determines how fast a vehicle can travel. Horsepower is a measure of torque over time, the rate of the work done to move a car (1hp=746 watts of energy). In that event, the engine will likely never be required to work harder than 50%, which could possibly extend its life. The only way it would have an impact is if the car develops significant torque at low rpm range. Horsepower has nothing to do with the quality of the car. Of course, it's relative to the weight of the car (think about horses pulling heavy sleds-the heavier the sled, the more horses you need). Maximum horsepower determines top speed, the point at which the police will impound your car. Such an engine will feel peppy throughout the driving range. Some gas turbo engines have relatively flat torque curves that develop significant torque (200 lb/ft) at about 1700 rpm and hold that through the rpm range to 5000, before dropping off. So for most city driving situations, an engine that develops torque sooner will feel peppier.ĭiesel engines, for instance, typically have low maximum horsepower ratings, but if they create significant torque (say, 140 lb/ft) at low rpms (say 1500), they will feel quite peppy as they will be able to move the weight of the vehicle expeditiously.
#Extreme race engines ny driver
In city driving, it is not often that a driver will have the opportunity to develop maximum horsepower, as it usually happens high in the rpm range (you really have to rev the engine). Look and see where maximum horsepower and torque are created. When looking at engine output, you will have two graphs, horsepower vs rpm, and torque vs rpm. The saying is "Horsepower wins races, torque moves loads." Today the term horsepower is widely used in motor racing to describe power and performance: “the greater the horsepower, the greater the performance." For example, most formula one race cars can rev up to 18,000 RPM, and hence their horsepower is extremely high. The more horsepower, the faster and quicker the car. To answer ‘does horsepower mean anything to car buyers and enthusiasts,’ is that this is the measurement everybody asks for in regards to the performance figures for a car that they can relate to other model cars. Hence the term brake – Horsepower and torque which measures the twisting power of an engine. It is measured on a dynamometer that test how much power and strength (torque) the engine has before the dynamometer can stop or break it. Horsepower is a measurement of an engine’s power. This gave the public an indication of how powerful his new engines were, by working out how many horses it would take to pull the same amount of weight as one of his engines. If a horse could pull a certain amount of weight per second, his engine had something for the common person to relate to. The easiest way of describing this at the time was to compare it with a horse. Initially James Watt, the inventor of the steam engine, wanted to tell people how much power his new engine could deliver. Horsepower combines the theory of work with time.
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