Torque is what is going to give you the tropy on the 1/4 mile.
remember that you still have to get to your peak power, and torque is the one who's gonna get you there. (chevy high performance magazine)
Fernando.

 

What if the 2.0L engine had a rear end gear of 6.0 vs the 454s 3.0? edit: This was said in the post. oh well.

I found this website interesting:horsepower vs torque

 

Well Im a bit late on this one, and Im not going to read all of the thread, but I will Mention this one little bit as it needs to be made clear. Perhaps it has already been mentioned, I don't know.


Horsepower is a Function of Torque and Time. Aperion layed that out for us.

RPM is time, Torque is work. Work over a given period of Time Gives you Power, Horsepower is a Unit of power..

Now Torque deliverd to the ground is really what matters In Making a Car accelerate.

Gears are Just torque mutiplication.

So Deeper gears multiplies the torque being deliverd to the ground by a larger amount.

So You can have either an engine that makes little torque at high RPM, and use big gear reduction(torque mutiplication), or you can have an engine that makes alot of Torque at low RPM, and use less gear reduction. The end result is going to be the Same, Because the Actual Torque deliverd to the ground is going to be the same.

Engine Horsepower is really quite misleading, It would be more useful to measure Axle RPM and torque and come up with a Measurement of Axle Horsepower, as this would be much more accurate in comparing potential acceleration across platforms.

Think about it, High RPM engine with Little torque. Spinning real fast. Uses Big gear reduction(torque mutiplication) and ends up with the axle spinning at a lower Rpm(slower) X and with a higher Torque Y. You Sacrafice Speed for Torque, thats how Gear's work. Or Vice versa.. think of your Bicycle.

Big engine, low rpm but big Torque. uses substantially less gear reduction(torque mutiplication) and ends up with the axle spinning at the same Speed X, and with the same Torque Y.

So Same end product. Assuming Similar Average Torque under the powerband for either of the vehicles, and you will see similar Accel. ( with similar wieghts)

There is a TON of confusion on this subject in the automotive world, and I dn't think I have been eloquent enough to dispell it here.

Its too bad, haha.

The reason Really high Horsepower Engines Spin to Higher RPMS is because there is a limit of how much torque can be Made for a Given displacement. ~100% cylinder filling, VE, For NA engines.

500 Ft/lbs at 3000 RPM is going to produce substantially less Horsepower than 500 ft/lbs at 6000 RPM. If you gear them both down to a Similar speed(axle RPM), You will use a Much higher factor of Torque Multiplcation ( gear reduction ) on the High Horsepower Engine, as a result the Measured Torque at the Point of Contact will be Higher.

So you would taylor your engine to acheive High VE's and as a result higher Torque at the Higher RPM If you wanted to produce more Power to the ground than the 100% VE of your Current displacement and RPM range would allow.

Most of us havent acheived even 80% VE at the RPM's we operate our engines at (2000-6000). So it is better served for us to focus on increasing VE in the current RPM range, than on Shifting the RPM range upward and attempting to maintain VE's,

 

I've gotta' throw in my two cents also if you guys don't mind, it seems to me that everybody is bringing 10 lbs of ..... in a 1lb bag. Torque and horsepower are engine oriented,.. gearing,tires,wind resistance,etc,sort of side track the original question of this thread. granted gears are extremely important to accelleration,as they should set in ratios that maximize use of both curves together.let me know if this makes any sense or if I should just put the beer down and shut up. An analogy I was thinking of is...people and mountain bikes...one person is a big guy,he has weight and leg strength..but the speed he can pedal is limited,o.k.he is torque......then we have the little wirey guy that is in shape and pedals like crazy. From a dead stop they both lay onto their pedals(accelleration)torque takes off while HP is standing on his pedal, slowly gaining speed. Now when them pedals are really spinning,he isn't even having to stand on them anymore, right? starting to gain on old torqi' right? if they are using say,5speeds, odds are torque would prevail.if they are on say 21 speeds; torques lack of speed will limit him drastically;... while the close gearing will allow HP to get into his rythm, go thru the gears, all while stayin at the peak of his curve. So (if you're still with me)what is my point??? peak accell. is not soley one or the other.it is a combination of the two, fine tuned with gearing for maximum use.peaks of the two curves can be adjusted (if I am not mistaken)by things like; cam timing; fine tuning of both intake and exhaust systems. The closer the peaks, the less impact those few extra rpm(aka HP) will make, so torque would logically have greater effect. as the peaks become further apart (as different engine configurations would dictate)the larger a part rpm(aka HP)would be thus max accell occurs between the two peaks, just to the torque side of center.which I believe the test results show consistently......yes????????;no??????? what ya' think.