I’m looking at two cars and even after having googled I’m still not really wrapping my head around this:
Horsepower (Net @ RPM)
Car 1: 208 @ 5700
Car 2:194 @ 6000
Torque (Net @ RPM)
Car 1:163 @ 5200
Car 2: 139 @ 4400
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1. Car 1 seems to have higher HP, but how does the RPM come into play? Is it better to have less RPM? Like car1 doesnt need to exert itself (in terms of RPM) to reach a higher HP than car2?
2. Car 1 has more torque, which is ‘the ability to do work.’ This sounds like a good thing but how does the RPM come into play?
Would car 1 be considered more powerful than car 2?
In: 0
This wikipedia article answers your question:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamometer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamometer)
Power is speed times torque.
Think of a bicycle. Pedal fast and hard for power. Fast and easy or hard and slow mean you should shift gears.
horsepower and torque are related. Torque is the amount of work you can do. Horsepower is a measure of how fast you can do the work.
To put it another way, say torque means you can pick up a 50lbs rock and put it on a shelf. Horsepower is how many times you can pick up that rock and put it on a shelf per minute.
You calculate horsepower with this equation: torque x engine RPM/5252
Car 1 has a torque peak at a higher RPM than car 2, but it likely makes more than car 2 at 4400 rpm where it hits it’s peak
Car 2 makes most of its power up top, whereas car 1 is probably dropping off by then.
In reality peak numbers aren’t super useful, the dyno sheets will tell you far more than you’ll ever get from just peak numbers, but manufacturers rarely release dyno sheets.
Torque is like how much damage a punch does, RPM is how fast you’re throwing punches, and horsepower is how much damage you’re dealing a second
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