If you had a choice would you buy a car based on horsepower or torque?

I recently read an interesting post on another web forum and wanted to share the viewpoint and what you guys think.

Should the goal be to have higher torque than horsepower or more HP than torque?

Simply put... Torque is what gets you going off the line and horsepower is work done over time.
Of course the more torque the better, but you also want horsepower. Look at diesels. They have amazing amounts of torque "towing power" but only have little horsepower because diesel engines only rev up to like 3,000 RPM. But look at the S2000. 147 lb-ft torque, yet it has 240 hp because it has more RPM band to play with.

If I HAD TO choose, I would say having higher torque is more important, and fun. But the ideal situation would be to increase both torque and horsepower. -acuraworld

Baseline numbers on the GS and some other cars.

GS430: Horsepower at rpm 300 hp @ 5,600
Torque at rpm 325 lb-ft @ 3,400
0-60 mph acceleration 5.8 seconds

GS400: Horsepower at rpm 300 hp @ 6,000
Torque at rpm 310 lb-ft @ 4,000
0-60 mph acceleration 5.8 seconds

GS300: Horsepower at rpm 220 hp @ 5,800
Torque at rpm 220 lb-ft @ 3,800
0-60 mph acceleration 7.8 seconds

Honda S2000: Horsepower at rpm 240 hp @ 7,800
Torque at rpm 162 lb-ft @ 6,500
0-60 mph acceleration is 5.5 seconds

Infinity FX45: Horsepower at rpm 315 hp @ 6,400 RPM
Torque at rpm 329 lb-ft @ 4,000 RPM
0-60 mph acceleration is 6.2 seconds

FX35: Horsepower at rpm 280 hp @ 6,200 RPM
Torque at rpm 270 lb-ft @ 4,800 RPM
0-60 mph acceleration is 7.2 seconds

Obviously weight of the vehicle plays a major role as well.

 

tq hands down. nothing beats the feeling of getting pushed into the seat

 

torque straight up.

 

US drivers will almost certainly prefer torque because we don't have autobahn-type highways where horsepower comes into play; most of us live/work/play and do probably 90+ % of our driving in settings where torque is king!!

Probably get a different answer in parts of Europe...................

 

...gets my vote....

 

of course a nice blend of HP and Torque would be ideal, but if i had to choose, I'd go with torque


btw, shouldn't this be in Car Chat as opposed to the GS forum?

 

I prefer torque because I drive a heavy car in stop and go traffic. Now if I were driving a lil honda on big empty roads my answer would be a lil different.

 

Definetly torque

 

I prefer a car with good balance between the two. And my opinion toward the importance of these two factors varies from car to car. For sports car, probably 80% horsepower and 20% torque, for sedan may be half-half, for SUV, torque is much more important. However, many vehicles that have high horsepower also have high torque. I don't like cars that you must keep the engine rpm very high to maintain fast, such as Honda S2000.

 

Torque. I like seeing the passenger's look of surprise when I hit the pedal coming out of a turn

 

Torque! ... and I wish I coulda had more!

 

For a daily driver - torque.

For a weekend fun car - HP - with excellent handling tossed in the mix

 

HP is better for bragging rights, but torque is king.

 

Torque but of course!

 

Besides my GS400, I have had an old 1989 Ford Thunderbird Supercoupe for almost 13 years now. Torque is what made me buy the car back in 1991. Heck , it had more than a V8 Mustang of the same years, and still has more lb. ft. than even most high performance cars today.

Factory supercharged/ intercooled v6, with either 315 lb ft @ 2600 rpm or 330 lb ft @2500 rpm (depending on year) and the posi rears they came with, twin strips of rubber are as easy as flooring the pedal. They fall on their face after 4000 RPM (unlike the GS!) but till then, they're a blast. They are low on HP (210 or 230, respectable at the time, but weak now ) but torque saves the day in making the difference for me. Yes, they're heavy cars too at 3900 lbs, but those lb. ft. numbers sure do make it fun from stoplight to stoplight. Maybe a POS to some here ( hey -I understand) , but I will probably never sell it due to that torquey feel and sleek body style.

I do believe a balanced car like the GS4, with near equal amounts of HP/ torque is best overall, but copious amounts of low rev grunt sure gives grins too. I would LOVE an S2000 if I lived up in the mountains, for the winding roads, but not for daily commuting in the flatlands, where I am.