wow this discussion went from 4 cylinder NAs to general cars

If both cars run the same gears, then the high-power one will be able to spend a longer time in each gear, still giving it better overall acceleration. Either way, it is an advantage. If you take away anything from this article, let it be that gearing is extremely important in determining a car's overall performance.

Source: http://www.procivic.com/pages-horsep...que/index.html

conclusion: Since the Civic Si, or any high horsepower low torque car for that matter, has high horsepower it can stay in each gear longer (and the civic si is a 6 speed), resulting in more acceleration, the civic si's gearing allows it to be a bit faster than the ss/na (with a good driver) even if it lacks torque

if the driver doesnt know when to shift for the best performance, thats when they're not so fast

lol at the beginning of the article he mentions how this is a big argument in forums...

 

An rsx type S will wipe the floor with a cobalt ss/na

 

+1000000

 

Engage ludacris speed!!

 

And in all honesty I've seen exactly 2 of these on the road that I can remember.

So what! Who cares!?!? Of corse someone will ALWAYS be faster then you, just you be faster then most and your doing just fine.

God Damn people need to relax its just a econoy car!

"NO! Not ... LUDACRIS SPEED!"

 

I'm 35 and hold GM mater tech along with ASE master tech certification in cars and heavy trucks for my qualifications. For my resume I've built over 40 cars some from little more then junk yard scrap. I am one of the 2 guys who originaly put a small block Chevy into a Fox bodied Mustang for the first time back in the mid 80's and designed the kit now in use today as the basic swap for this install. I've had 3 featured cars in Hot Rod magizine as well as had my cars featured as a lead car for the Hot Rod Power Tour.

Now that we know how old I am and know a little about me its your turn. How old are you?

When an engine OR car are dynoed for HP and torque readings the dyno measures the torque output and THEN mathmaticly derives a HP # from the torque readings and the engines RPM. Horse Power is INDEED a therotical #.

In fact heres a nice link that should clear it up for you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_power

 

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/horsepower1.htm
Maybe not theoretical, but definitely a by-product of torque. If you have low torque you NEED to make up for it by having a shift point at higher RPM's. And I beat a modded type S when I had an intake. Maybe luck, who knows, but I beat him. Honestly, these arguments are useless, and what is more useless is when peoples opinions force them to ignore science. Read about how you measure HP as well as the rest of the article, it is a good read

 

hehehe pwned

The civic will win repeatedly unless the driver sucks. Nuff said

 

I ment theotetical as in the fact that it is not the measured force but rather the toque is. The HP is dirived from a mathmatical calculation of the turque and engine RPM. HP is not the measured force, torque is and the HP # is calcuated off of it.

Besides the term horse power was coined by a guy in hopes of selling more of his steam engines to farmers in the 1800's. He watched a few horses and figured they could dead pull X amount of weight. He FIGUED! nothing scientific at all other then him pulling a # from his butt.

 

Dont worry sir, I am on your side. I agree with you, I was just making sure DonutShop wasnt basing his argument on semantics

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/horsepower.htm
This is Horsepower

 

i smell a honda fanboi

 

Not TRUE! No Honda ever BUILT can go plaid!

I spell like an 8 year old but I know cars. Good thing this is a site for cars and not spelling huh? Didn't realize you were my 5th grade spelling teacher.

A HP # is gotten how? What does a dyno do and where does the HP # come from?

 

no one likes howstuffworks.com? its smarter than all of us!

 

i smell wrong ? ouch you hurt my feelings

and yes if your more partial to a certain car, you will bash other cars that get close to competing with it. people on here do it with their cobalts, and your doing it right now with honda's.

so in part, yes you are indeed a fanboi.

 

personal attacks are a weak form of argument. read a physics book to learn about horsepower and torque.

 

so now that he just pwned you your trying to get back at him because he can't spell.... wow thats mature. you never answered how old you were?

 

you are right on what? that torque means nothing in cars, when its a fact that hp is derived from torque?
i really want to know how old you are too lol, you insult people on here for spelling errors because they tell you an answer that conflicts with yours but in turn might be more true.

true horsepower is a number a lot of people try to gain on their cars, but torque is the driving force of cars, without much torque, your car may be fast on the top end, but it will have no power when accelerating or doing things such as going up hills and what not

 

"Similarly, if you attach a shaft to an engine, the engine can apply torque to the shaft. A dynamometer measures this torque. You can easily convert torque to horsepower by multiplying torque by rpm/5,252."
looks like it disagrees. and you did attack jack. talking about someone instead of contributing to the argument is an attack

 

thanks for all the info guys i've really learned a lot today

 

this shows me that you no longer have an argument

 

Hmm, didn't know spelling = IQ points. But because you asked so nicly its 149, whats yours?

Your just pissed cause YOUR wrong and I PWNT you and its that simple. A dyno measures the twisting force an engine produces WHICH is called TORQUE. It them calculates the HP figure to go along with the torque readings.

Now as for enjoying your day please know that you have been reported for violating several forum rules. Perhaps you'll be banned, perhapps not but in the end I still PWNT you. Enjoy your day.

 

the new civic si has 4.7's. If that car had any decent torque at all that would almost be undrivable, but if you had the same six speed in an ss/na with more torque, even if they were the same exact weight, which is not true, the ss/na would be signifigantly faster. You would go through the gears insanely fast, but you would accelerate quicker. Torque IS the measurement of force not horsepower. Look around at any higher torque cars, like my v6 mustang for example. It comes with 3.31:1's stock and runs eh, low 15's, high 14's. With a tune and an intake people are running 14.7ish, but throw some 4.1's in there and people are running low 14's if they are getting traction. High horsepower cars, like said in that article can just stay in a gear longer, but if you are looking for acceleration and can shift fast enough and/or get traction, a higher torque car WILL be quicker with the proper gearing.

 

because the horse power is made mostly by engine speed. wich is a perfectly acceptable way to make horse power. do you still laugh at the torque numbers when they beat you in races? the end result justifies the means.

 

hhmmm u just proved my point for me. The jetta tdi weighs over 3300 lbs. Thats about as heavy as both of my mustangs. it makes a peak of 177 ft lbs at a very low rpm of 1800. For Volkswagen to make the car comfortably drivable for the average person that will be buying it, they put in very tall gearing. Now, if you were to put short, aggressive gearing into that car, you would most likely have some pretty major traction issues, but if you got traction you could probably run right even with cars with WAAAAAAAAAY more than its measely 100hp.

 

And cars tuned for high HP at the expence of torque do not win races. Ever heard of a "dyno queen"? You know the cars that make ungodly amounts of HP but little torque, funny how you never see the 1/4 mile times from those cars huh? They just brag about how much HP they make.