Horsepower vs. Torque: What’s the Difference? https://t.co/rO47BdGEJl pic.twitter.com/kfYZ6Q8gIC
— Car and Driver (@CARandDRIVER) April 15, 2016
The subject of horsepower and torque has always been a bit too technical for us to easily understand, until Car and Driver posted this surprisingly clear explanation.
The simplest terms we pulled from the article are this:
- Torque is the capacity to do work
- Horsepower is the speed of work
Work, in physics, is the result of a force acting over a distance. A very basic example of this is picking up a 2-pound paperweight that fell off your desk, and putting it back on top of your 3-foot high desk. The work you did is that 2 pounds multiplied by the 3 feet you lifted it.
Power is work over time. The faster you picked up the paperweight, the more power you were exerting.
Torque is twisting force, produced by an engine's rotating crankshaft, and essentially determines how big of a paperweight your vehicle can lift. An engine with high torque might be able to move a boulder, while a low-torque engine would have to stick with smaller weights.
Horsepower is mathematically derived from torque, multiplied by engine rotations per minute. At a high rpm, a low-torque engine could produce a lot of horsepower. A high-torque engine could produce a lot of horsepower at low rpms -- which is why we love our luxury sports cars to have high torque for low-end responsiveness.
Visit Autobahn USA for luxury pre-owned cars near Boston with both the torque and horsepower you crave.