Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General horsepower: i'm confused

I know this isn't a contour question, but is horsepower basically the main factor in determining if one car could beat another? I mean, i hear a lot of people talk up mustangs and how the haul major a** but according to carpoint.com the stock 4.6L V8 pulls about 260hp. Not that i'm saying that it's not very much horsepower, but an '02 Nissan Maxima (hopefully my next car) has a 3.5L V6 that runs 255hp.

So, what else makes one car faster than another?? I mean, if it's just horsepower than the Maxima should be able to give the 'stang a run for it's money. I guess i'm just ignorant when it comes to cars but i thought 'stangs, camero's, vett's, (and other 8 cylinders) where in a class of their own when it comes to being faster than other smaller cars.

I'm just curious and need educated

-pete

one thing you must consider when discussing HP is where the horsepower is being measured from... the flywheel or the rw/fw, you loose a good amount of hp when you go from the flyw to the fw/rw on the dyno

Torque, gear ratios, curb weight, drive-train, traction... a lot of factors basically.

You all forgot the most important factor THE DRIVER

if I remeber right horse power is torque/time, But through axles and gear ratio's (also known as transformers) you can increase TQ or HP. But to win a race you need a combo of both, in both cases of alot oh hp and little tq or lot of tq but little hp you won't be going far.

Also in consideration weight of the car, ATX/MTX, driver experience/skill.

Quarter mile times

Formula 1.....thats horsepower! Vs engine size.........

This basically becomes a math problem. You've stumbled into one of the problems with looking at ad copy. The ads (as well as the car rags) frequently post peak HP. The question is, where does that HP peak occur? Is it at 2000 RPM or 6500 RPMs. (Or like the F1 cars, at 12K+ RPM just can't drive that on the street, yet.)

You really need to see the dyno plots, and the car with the most area under the curve, has the most potential to go fast in a short drag race.

However, the other factors mentioned as well, driver, traction, FWD v RWD also come into play here.

So you gotta look at more than just peak HP.

Let's also understand quick vs fast. Quick is basically a measure of acceleration. How quickly can the car accelerate. The Mustang is probably quick as well as fast. Fast is basically, what is the top speed of the car.

It is possible that the Mustang is Quick, and the Max is fast.

TB

Or like the F1 cars, at 12K+ RPM

Not to be an ass, but F1 cars today hit 18K+ RPM, and I estimate the 20K barrier will fall in 2004

Well, not to be an ass but doesn't 12K+ include 18K+

TB