In Reply to: hmmmm posted by Spinnaker (Spinnaker) on March 01, 1999 at 06:51:52
: I am not a design engineer, but if I had to guess, I would say it is application. Things like vehicle size/weight, price of fuel, repair parts etc...
: Americans like that seat of your pants pull... While Europeans have higher hwy speeds.
: When I was talking about torque, I did not include the drivetrain. This throws a few more variables in to the mix. The values you see in the mags may or may not be dyno'd and measured at the rear wheel.
You can build a high HP low torque engine for top speed, but it'll take a long time to get there or you can build a high torque lower HP engine that will give you "grunt" but not very fast "grunt". The ultimate is a high HP and high torque engine that'll give you both. Hard to achieve though. Depends on what we want. Ultimately, all engines are compromises between HP and torque depending on appliation. Diesels give you lots of torque but not much HP so you can tow heavy loads very well, but the diesel won't be very fast. Diesel Ferrari anyone? Won't ever see it built.