Does torque matter to you?

Does torque matter to you?

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My knackered old car is pretty sluggish these days. I'd kill for more torque!

My kickdown switch (and I do mean a switch) doesn't work properly so sometimes when I'm merging and I put my foot down nothing really happens. It just sits in 3rd gear and goes ".....huh? I'm on vacation." and I'll be like "come on! I'm about to be killed!"
 
I don't like how mercedes does their overdrive system. (I imagine you are talking about the little "click" when you put the go pedal to the floor)

My mums car has it and I find it really annoying, I prefer it to just know how much throttle you are givving and gear down accordingly.
 
JipJopJones said:
I don't like how mercedes does their overdrive system. (I imagine you are talking about the little "click" when you put the go pedal to the floor)

My mums car has it and I find it really annoying, I prefer it to just know how much throttle you are givving and gear down accordingly.
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Yeah, it's just a little button under the accelerator pedal and when you floor it the button gets pressed. I've driven one that works properly and it's not too bad but mine is faulty and doesn't really work at all. It's at those times that i'm reminded of how little torque my engine produces.:lol:
 
Torque has always been my favorite part for a car. Of course, this is only an opinion but to me, most of the time, it's the sole ingredient that provides fun in everyday driving.

Bentley Continental Flying Spur-esque of torque pull especially.

479 lb-ft @ 1,600 rpm.
 
Redliner said:
You are kidding, right? Are you talking about the V6 version of the Alfa Romeo Spyder? Or the older ones?
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America never got the V6 ones. I'd wager he's refering to the older 4 cylinder ones.

llpc60 said:
I dont care for torque at all... I can toe/heel and love to wind out engines. being in the power range is easy for me. torque-less engines like the miata, are a lot of fun to drive it in the way that you never dip below 4k, unless stopping at lights etc. torque can go die.
Tobias said:
Heck yeah! Screw torque sluts. Give me a high-revving European engine over a lumbering domestic block any day!
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As I mentioned before my brothers e30 is like this, and I spend A LOT of time in it. I gather you guys don't spend a lot of time on the highways. On short trips, those that take less than an hour, a high reving motor isn't all that bad and obviously on back roads it's great. There are many times I'll be sitting shotgun though and just wish for that irritating drone from the intake, which 20 minutes ago sounded good, to go away, and for my brother to stop having to downshift to 4th or sometimes 3rd to get around the idiots on the road.

I can't believe I'm about to say this but... my dad's 95 accord (2 liter 4cyl) had a much better torque curve and when he need to pass at 85 or 90 he just gave it a bit more throttle, no rough downshift/kick down and not a whole lot of noise either. Same goes for the old "battlewagon" 78 Buick Regal (v8).
 
Torque does matter to me. In daily traffic it's nice to have a torquey engine, so i don't have to shift down after another truck decides to go overtaking and i need to get from 80 back to 140-150. But i also love engines that like high revs, like llpc60 said, it's very gratifying to go around driving your car around a twisty road (like the 'Ring :wub:) and keeping it in that powerband.

My old Mitsu (100ps @ 5750rpm, 137Nm @ 4000rpm) was a bit dead below 3500rpm, and it started to sing above 4000rpm. That meant a lot of downshifts on the highway, once the speed dropped below 100kph. I dunno about the Merc yet, drove it only very briefly, but from the specs it should be a bit more torquey than the Mitsu (118ps @ 5100rpm, 172Nm @ 3500rpm).
 
Not so much.. I figure if I'm going to be driving fast, I'll downshift to get into the powerband anyway, so what's the issue. Unless I had an automatic or I was too lazy to downshift to get to the power.

That would only get slightly frustrating on a really very windy road where shifting had to be constant to keep the power. But then on that same road a Vette would be just as frustrating with it's odd gearing (seems to be geared for 0-60 and 1/4 mile times, not real driving), you'd never get out of second. So then why would you need the torque? You'd just need a high revving car with power at the mid and top anyway.
 
I love a big lazy engine. Driving high revving, highly strung short stroke engines drives me up the wall. They're fun to drive, but for day to day, torque wins.
 
Best description I ever heard is: Power is what makes the car go fast, torque is what makes the wheels turn.
 
Rather, when does the torque band start? I want it to start at idle dammit!

I value throttle response and the size of the powerband most over outright power. For example I threw my turbocharger in the bin and went to a positive displacement supercharger (and a extra 500cc of capacity).

Any time, any gear I can get decent throttle response. Before, nothing really happened till 2000rpm-3000rpm (I spoze when you bounce off 7200rpm quite a bit it really doesn't matter) while it was fun, it was actually not that fast. While going to the blower wasn't the best for outright grunt (its quite a limited little unit and displaces far less air than the turbo did) the car is now considerable quicker point to point, with 7psi of boost avalible instantly.

Basically it means if I a muff up a corner, I'm not totally caught flatfooted (low rpm, wrong gear). And since I'm far from God behind the steering wheel its really the best outcome.

I suppose the ultimate solution is a turbo and supercharged engine, and while it has been done with my particular type of engine, the compressors that where used where, well a little out of my budget. The other option is another 400cc of displacement, however you then run into crankshaft problems and the like. Still I keep the rpm down (pegged at 7200) so it not really a problem then?

The other issue is how progressive the torqueband is. A nice flat torque curve please, no dips or sudden peaks.

Sorry I hope you didn't goto sleep there!
 
The only people always going on about torque are diesel drivers because they can't deny the fact that they have bought stinking tractors with an awful top speed.
 
Torque defiantly.. My honda takes a year to downshift to find power and by the time that power arrives, the trailer truck behind me has crumpled my bumper.. On the other hand in my Z in 5th gear (5th and 6th are super long gears, 4th is 1:1) running at about 70mph churning about 2100rpm I can floor the throttle and make it up to 100mph in seconds flat due to the 325ft/lbs of torque available at 2300rpm really get the 3750lbs car up and moving to 100mph in a few seconds.. Now 6th is a different story :p (i believe 6th gear .31 before the diff). Around town the Z is lots of fun with all the torque off the line, spinning the wheels at half-throttle, where as my honda just isnt fun. I can play with Hondas and other cars kids have at school without down shifting which is a + in the show-off factory :lol:


Torque is the seat of pants feeling, Its addictive.
 
Last edited:
"Horsepower sells cars, torque wins races" - Carroll Shelby

Enough said!
 
this is a tough one to answer simply because of how people distinguish between torque and horse power.

power is a function of torque so for a given engine more torque = more horse power anyway, you cant really have more of one without getting more of t'other.

i think the question really is do you like big engines.... or comparitevely small engines (per cylinder volume)

all the euro cars you have there have smaller displacements and rev higher.

i think its just prefering certain characteristics do you like raspy, responsive engines that exude a sense of urgency? ferrari V8 for example where youd need to change gears to keep the engine in the sweet spot.

or do you like the less urgent, raucious engines that exude the feeling that there is a limitless surge of pure power beneath your right foot? z06 7 liter v8 for example, where it doesnt matter what the gear it'll still pull like a freight train.
 
Basically what Jetsetter is trying to prove is that his American cars are better than our European cars and that America rules, GM is God and blah, blah, Chrysler still is a good deal...blah, blah, blah, blah...etc, etc, etc.

But yes. Torque does matter for me.

No. I would never, ever buy an American car in my life.
 
Redliner said:
You are kidding, right? Are you talking about the V6 version of the Alfa Romeo Spyder? Or the older ones?
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1986 alfa romeo spider veloce
alfa86.jpg
 
Horsepower sells cars, torque wins races.
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Sorry, but that out-of-context quote is thrown about way too much and grossly oversimplifies the situation. Not to say that Shelby is "wrong." But he meant it in a way that these days people only care about the hp number and nothing else. That other facets of a motor are overlooked when the average "car enthusiast" looks for a sporty ride. It is obvious that torque alone would do little to win races, especially one that is specifically designed for maximum torque generation (aka large diesels).

"If you visualize the HP curve heading rapidly upwards than slowly downwards as the RPMs increase, what you really have to do is maximize the total area under the curve (since this is a measure of how much "accelerating" the engine is doing) for a given gearing. This means adjusting gearing, shift patterns and engine tuning to the optimum point that will be reliable (and legal within class rules) but provide the most "accelerating" potential. It would be more accurate to say that "Peak torque at the optimum RPM wins races, where optimum is defined as a balance of numerous different things."

Let me provide an example. I'll use my race car's 1.8 liter engine, which makes about 105 ft.lbs of torque at about 4500 RPMs. I'll spot Shelby a magical engine that makes 5252 ft.lbs of torque at 1 RPM, but that tapers off very quickly -- say 0 ft.lbs at 2 RPMs. That's a torquey engine! Shelby's engine, unfortunately for him, develops 1 hp at peak. In other words, it's capable of pulling very hard, very slowly. I'm going to bet on myself.

All that said, 'torquey' engines are more desirable for daily driving. People spend a lot of time putting from one stop light to the next, and spend a lot of time low in the RPM range. For 'seat of pants' feel, torquey engines have a lot of appeal."
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