eli5 What is torque in regards to cars

Question

I’ve watched YouTube videos so o understand it’s to do with turning power but how isit linked to cars

In: Engineering

Answer 1

There are some bad answers in here and a descent one. Torque is the force on a shaft causing it to rotate. Internal combustion engines house cylinders with pistons inside them which are forced downward and upwards repeatedly applying torque to the crank shaft. That energy is transferred through the transmission, and rear end to the wheels through many complicated gears.

20 lbs. ft. of torque is 20 lbs of force applied to a shaft at 1 ft from the center of the shaft. This is why in terms of cars, you’ll hear 400 lb ft of torque at the crank, flywheel, tire etc. Depending on many..many aspects of engineering you can achieve different levels of torque and 400 lb ft of torque at the crank shaft will have a different amount of torque at the wheel.