Quote:
Originally Posted by Scion FR-S
Can anyone offer a more complete understanding? Wikipedia on horsepower was not directly on point.
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It's torque * gearing/RPM which is why a big garbage truck with tons of torque is slow, or why diesels can feel fast but usually aren't. I like the explanation on one of the Vette pages, but here's a snip (read the bit about the 12,000 tq waterwheel which is really only 6 hp) :
http://www.vettenet.org/torquehp.html
L98 with 250 hp @ 4000
LT1 with 300 hp @ 5000
Both 340 tq.
First, each car will push you back in the seat (the fun factor) with the same authority - at least at or near peak torque in each gear. One will tend to *feel* about as fast as the other to the driver, but the LT1 will actually be significantly faster than the L98, even though it won't pull any harder.
The L98 is making 328 foot pounds of torque at its power peak (250 hp @ 4000). The L98 is probably making no more than around 210 pound feet or so at 5000 rpm so driver will shift earlier.
On the other hand, the LT1 is fairly happy making 315 pound feet at 5000 rpm, and is happy right up to its mid 5s redline.
So, in a drag race, the cars would launch more or less together. From somewhere in the mid range and up, however, the LT1 would begin to pull away. Where the L98 has to shift to second (and throw away torque multiplication for speed), the LT1 still has around another 1000 rpm to go in first, and thus begins to widen its lead, more and more as the speeds climb. As long as the revs are high, the LT1, by definition, has an advantage.