Sorry lads but that is BOLLOX.
Torque is almost useless without BHP, torque is only useful once you have built up some road speed.
I'm sorry if you think its bollox, but its basic physics mate.
HP = (torque X rpm) divided by 5252
Road speed has nothing at all to do with it, its all about engine speed. What gets your car off of the line is torque, not power, as Power is dependant upon the engine speed (road speed is irrelevant) and the torque of the engine at that particular engine speed.
As an example, at an engine speed of 1900, where my car produces 236lb ft of torque, I am producing 85hp. Your car will be producing (a bit of a guess here, I'm sure you'll have the figures to correct me) somewhere in the region of 150lb ft of torque, therefore your engine will be producing only 43 hp at that engine speed.
Where our engines differ is that my torque pleateaus at that point meaning only one factor of the above equation, revolutions, increases my horsepower to its maximum.) Once my torque figure starts to decrease (before the point of maxium power) it is only the increase in revolutions involved that maintain and increase the power, to its peak figure of 150hp.
Whilst a petrol engine might ultimately have less torque, its a much steeper curve (meaning it increases slower, but for longer) and the formula above dictates it will produce a higher horsepower figure, as it has an extra 2000 rpm within its rev range and its peak torque figue is higher up that rev range.
If you manipulate the above formula will see that the horsepower figure of an engine wll only ever be greater than that of the torque figure once an engine speed of 5252 rpm has been passed. Bearing in mind our diesel machines do not rev that high, it is not surprising that the power is well down, compared to the torque figure
I think some of you chaps are getting a bit carried away with the torque thing, i'm not knocking the diesel, its definately a very nippy motor, but i can't see them overtaking the petrol engine for performance.
No-one's getting carried away, the simple fact is that the amount torque your engine has is one of two factors (the other being maximum engine speed) that will determine how much power your engine produces.
Where people get carried away is with power, because if you have no torque, a high power output is only achieved with a high rev limit, which for everyday driving is useless. Hence we don't all drive F1 cars that have approximately 270lb ft of torque, but due to a 18,000 rev range are able to produce 950 bhp.
Secondly, diesel already
has overtaken petrol for performance - as much as the 1.8t turbo boys won't like to admit it, other than than the 0-60 benchmark (which is still debateable as many magazines have reported a sub 7.5 second time for the diesel) the PD150 is quicker than the 1.8t in all the in-gear benchmarks.
This has the potantial to turn into an argument and go backwards and forwards (in which I see no benefit to, as we've already stated our beliefs), so I suggest that anyone interested goes onto a search engine and searches for sites concerned with this.
Personal preference will come into whether you prefer a torquey engine or one with a higher final horse power figure. Personally for the journeys I do everyday I prefer one that sits at 2200 rpm when sat at 80 miles per hour, that doesn't require a down-change to accelerate quickly, and its torque that makes that happen.
