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okay so wait...if you were researching a car to find a powerful motor...you would want to look at what exactly?

ive always just looked at HP and torque...and the way i think of it is HP is like when youre at a high RPM, it will still accelerate fast if you were to punch it, and torque is what "pulls" you when you accelerate. very non-industry terms, i know, but please help me out :)

for instance, my 150hp honda :) ? if im going 70, i have absolutely no acceleration, is that from a lack of HP or what?

Any lack of power is due to lack of torque. Disregard horsepower figures if you mean to accelerate, and that is at ANY speed. If you see speed vs. torque graphs, you'll see that the acceleration of a car directly corresponds to the torque that the engine is making. If you want to see what an engine is capable of, look at the torque curve and where it falls into place. High torque at low RPMs=torquey, good acceleration and smooth power. Works well off the line at 1/4 mile runs as well. High torque at high RPMs= good for high speed racing, road courses, etc.

Jonathan wrote:Any lack of power is due to lack of torque. Disregard horsepower figures if you mean to accelerate, and that is at ANY speed. If you see speed vs. torque graphs, you'll see that the acceleration of a car directly corresponds to the torque that the engine is making. If you want to see what an engine is capable of, look at the torque curve and where it falls into place. High torque at low RPMs=torquey, good acceleration and smooth power. Works well off the line at 1/4 mile runs as well. High torque at high RPMs= good for high speed racing, road courses, etc.

cool thanks

how is this? :
Torque: 260 lb-ft @ 4,800 RPM

is 260 lb-ft high torque? what's considered 'high'?

your on the right track. you can think of it as torque is what gets you off the line and horse power is what wins the 60 to 100mph race. for simplicity sake, sports cars are known for horse power while big work trucks are known for torque.

or im a moron and didnt see the second page. for simplicity sake- read jonathons reply!!

260 lb ft isn't too bad, it isn't super high either, though. Once you get past making 400lb ft, you're getting into the more powerful stuff (of course a lot of that depends on your demands for the engine). Usually on a street motor you want to make your peak torque in the 3000s, depending on what kind of motor it is.

By 3000s, I meant 3000 RPM, by the way. Making sure you didn't think I was saying 3000 lb ft or something.

lol @ 3000 ft lb