posted by Bret
"one more thing... our cars need MORE low end torque. everyone is so worried about peak numbers and how much hp they make a 7500rpm. who cares."
I care. More specifically I care most about my HP curve from 4500 - 7000 RPMs. I get tired of hearing about low end torque as an endpoint. Because when going for speed our cars are only below 4500 RPM for about 1.5 sec in first gear then no more unless you screw up the shift. Its not peak HP its HP AREA UNDER THE CURVE in that 4500-7000 rev range. Your low end tourque often but not always correlates with fattening up the HP curve, but a big lowend torque spike (frequently seen with our dual runner V6s) often does not because it is not sustained across enough RPMs to benefit the relevent power band. (Feels good for part throttle around town grunt though.) And that power peak at 7500 RPMs means your "relavent" power band is moved 500RPM to the right to say 5000-7500 RPMs. Thus, the average power under the curve will be greater assuming you are still making good power at 7500 RPM. So we SHOULD be concerned with maximizing HP area under the curve. The magnitude and breadth of the torque curve AS WELL AS peak HP and how many available revs and what is the power drop off are ALL relevent toward this end.
