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Right... Power to weight ratio
Posted by Noel [Email] (more from Noel) on Thu, 9 Feb 2012 11:00:43
In Reply to: Re: Horses on a diet? They are more like ponies!, Les_H, Thu, 9 Feb 2012 09:43:34
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There's an old line that horsepower sells a car but people are really buying torque. They just don't know the difference!
A lot of cars these days are like the average American-- overweight and out of shape.
WRT power to weight, lots of cars weigh in at 20:1 or more. This equates to slow. For a car to feel good it needs to be <15:1. To feel great it needs to be 10:1 or better.
Most turbo motors make more torque than horsepower, which is why they feel so good to drive. But lots of normally aspirated engines make their HP at 4000 to 6500 rpm and the torque only begins to come in around 3000, but at maybe 50% of max torque--which is usually up around 4500 to 5500 rpm. Normal driving is not in those RPM ranges, so a car feels sluggish.
So unless they are geared right they don't feel very good to drive. Most cars with NA engines are geared so they are great from 0 to maybe 60, but are really geared for economy, so are gutless wonders when you try an uphill pass from 50 to 80 because they are starting from maybe 2000 rpm--where they are making half (or less) of their max HP and torque. The auto tranny kicking down to 2nd only does so much!
Just my $0.02
Posts in this Thread:
- Horses on a diet? They are more like ponies!, Acubra, Thu, 9 Feb 2012 09:33:36
- The problem is..., Eric Law, Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:03:03
- Re: Horses on a diet? They are more like ponies!, AdamSAAB2kAero , Thu, 9 Feb 2012 15:22:30
- Test drove an M3 the other day. . ., STICKMAN, Thu, 9 Feb 2012 14:15:23
- Same experience in an M5, Craig, Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:37:55
- This why I miss my '87 900 Turbo, AdamD, Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:40:32
- Exactly the reason, Tim, Thu, 9 Feb 2012 20:05:47
- Re: Test drove an M3 the other day. . ., Noel, Thu, 9 Feb 2012 17:21:46
- Seat of Pants == Torque / Weight ratio, Tim, Thu, 9 Feb 2012 10:15:55
- Re: Horses on a diet? They are more like ponies!, Les_H, Thu, 9 Feb 2012 09:43:34
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