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I have driven the new M3 and I will say that it is _plenty_ fast. People can argue all day over what is more important power or torque but the M3 which has only 260 ft-lbs of torque gets to sixty in less than five seconds.

I know that this goes against the general consensus of the bord, but I feel that power is more important than torque. To quote a torque number and have it mean something you really need to know the gearing of the car. Since torque at the rear wheels is what matters. Not torque at the engine. Power is the rate at which you can deliver energy. When accelerating what you want to do is deliver as much energy as possibly to the vehicle.

Another way of looking at it is what would you do if you had a CVT and wanted to accelerate? Bring the engine to the torque peak and acelerate the vehicle by changing the gearing, or bring it to the power peak and accelerate the vehicle by changing the gearing.

Do the math and you will see that the greatest rate of acceleration occurs when at the power peak for a given vehicle speed.

Quick Example:

The vehicle is doing X miles per hour. Engine is revving 5000 RPM at torque peak (Lets say 260 ft*lbs) . Overall gearing is nine to one. (approximately a new M3 in second) Torque at rear wheels is 260 * 9 = 2340 ft*lbs.

Take the same vehicle and bring it to its power peak (Lets say 330 HP) at 8,000 RPM. At that HP and rpm the engine is making 216Ft*lbs of torque. For the same vehicle speed of X the gear ratio would have to be 14.4 to one. Torque at the rear wheels is 216 *14.4 = 3,110 ft*lbs.

This is a pretty good discussion of the issue:

http://vettenet.org/torquehp.html

The conclusion is you need to make torque at high rpm. That means horsepower...

• New M3 only 260lbs of torque?, Ckpaden, Tue, 15 May 2001 08:50:52
  • a sidenote: M3 hoods made of (lightweight) aluminum, dave n, Wed, 16 May 2001 20:03:52
  • HP sells and wins races, Kevin K , Tue, 15 May 2001 11:47:24
    • Re: HP sells and wins races, GM, Tue, 15 May 2001 15:00:34
  • "only" 260 lb-ft is still alot of torque in a car that doesn't, Richard P., Tue, 15 May 2001 10:19:02
  • Re: New M3 only 260lbs of torque?, 2Slow, Tue, 15 May 2001 09:42:29 <-- Viewing This Message
    • Quite true, but..., jd, Wed, 16 May 2001 08:56:14
    • right. high hp means extended torque to hi rpms. nm, chrisx, Tue, 15 May 2001 11:53:20

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