To accelerate a vehicle we need to put kinetic energy into it and Power is the measure of how fast we can do that.
From a technical capability standpoint, torque is a useless measure. With a motor of a given power you can always gear it up or down to whatever torque you need (assuming a lossless transmission system).
If we take two identical trucks with 10k lb trailers on them and one’s a 800ft-lb diesel and one’s a 300ft-lb gas, both with 400hp, they sould realisticly accelerate and climb a hill at the same rate. The diference is the gas engine will be screaming at 6/7/8000 rpm and guzzling gas. (This also assumes no other factors like heat cone into play, the gas may not be able to maintain as much power due to cooling system designs or other factors).
Torquey-er engines also tend to feel better from a driveability standpoint but that’s not representative of capability.
What? Torque tells you what force can be applied at what distance from the center of rotation. Acceleration is a function of mass and force. Of course more torque is going to get you to accelerate faster.
Also wrong. If you compare two otherwise identical vehicles, the one with more power will both accelerate faster and have a higher top speed, assuming it has the gearing to use that power.
Stop getting all your vehicle knowledge from old top gear episodes.
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You’re both completely wrong. The only important measurement of a vehicle is spirit
I thought it was style, control, damage and aggression
And here I was thinking HP might be the Hit Points.
Only if you’re playing a mage. Otherwise you’ll want to know the vehicle’s HP, AC and THAC0.
Don’t forget to check your tires people that’s a lot of torque
Edit: wherever the rubber meets the road
To accelerate a vehicle we need to put kinetic energy into it and Power is the measure of how fast we can do that.
From a technical capability standpoint, torque is a useless measure. With a motor of a given power you can always gear it up or down to whatever torque you need (assuming a lossless transmission system).
If we take two identical trucks with 10k lb trailers on them and one’s a 800ft-lb diesel and one’s a 300ft-lb gas, both with 400hp, they sould realisticly accelerate and climb a hill at the same rate. The diference is the gas engine will be screaming at 6/7/8000 rpm and guzzling gas. (This also assumes no other factors like heat cone into play, the gas may not be able to maintain as much power due to cooling system designs or other factors).
Torquey-er engines also tend to feel better from a driveability standpoint but that’s not representative of capability.
What? Torque tells you what force can be applied at what distance from the center of rotation. Acceleration is a function of mass and force. Of course more torque is going to get you to accelerate faster.
Remember, power is torque times RPM, which is your accelerating force. It’s a functionally useless measurement without RPM.
An engine with half the torque revving twice as fast will make an equal amount of power, and accelerate equally fast.
Also wrong. If you compare two otherwise identical vehicles, the one with more power will both accelerate faster and have a higher top speed, assuming it has the gearing to use that power.
Stop getting all your vehicle knowledge from old top gear episodes.