The video we posted a little earlier today is a good illustration of brutal torque. Torque is the oft discounted and lesser admired brother of horsepower. As the old adage goes, “Horsepower is how fast you are going when you hit the wall and torque is how hard you hit it.” Lovers of Buicks, Oldsmobiles, Cadillac, and Pontiacs all admire twist and have spend the years refining their power plants to make gobs of it to get them down the race track, get them spinning tires for city blocks, and get them a few lengths ahead of the guy with the snappy high revving engine in the other lane. Horsepower is the sexy number that sells lots of parts and keeps us up at night hunting for more. Torque is the draft horse pulling the plow and getting not near enough thanks and appreciation for the work being done.
So now we want to know. Are you a torque master or a horsepower braggart? You don’t hear many guys at the car show saying that their motor makes 250hp and 400 lb/ft of torque. You hear a lot of horsepower numbers flying about, but maybe that’s just us. What say you?
QUESTION OF THE DAY: DO YOU FAVOR BIG TORQUE OR BIG HORSEPOWER? (DON’T WUSS OUT AND SAY BOTH)
