Engines

524 Views 2 Replies 3 Participants Last post by sceltor, May 3, 2004

brianjkeller

Discussion Starter · May 3, 2004

i was going through various forums today they were talking about how great the high revving engines are. Admittedly I am not experienced with sports cars, racing, or even high performance engines, but i fail to see why a car that peaks (hp/torque) at 7,000 rpm would be better than a car that peaks at 2500 rpm. When driving my pickup with its 3.0 liter v6 that starts to move only when the engine is around 3500 or so rpm and my parents full sized van with a v8 that starts to move as soon as you touch the gas i find that i enjoy driving the van more (excluding handling, turning, etc. the thing is a bloated tank, slow and can't turn). That being said why would you want a car that you need to keep at 5-7000 rpm to get it to move instead of one that can move in the 2-3000 rpm range?

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thehemi

· #2 · May 3, 2004

I prefer displacement (read: torque) over high revving, too.
I hate driving my wife's little OHC motor because I have to
mash the gas and rev it up just to pass people. A big V6 or
V8 just takes a little goose and the torque does all the work.

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sceltor

· #3 · May 3, 2004

Its better to have a broad powerband over a several thousand rpm range than all low or all high. A disadvantage to having all the grunt at 3000 rpm is that you would have to shift sooner and more often when accelerating heavily. If your power is more spread out you have to shift less. I agree that high-strung engines are overrated, though. What's the point of 300 HP when you only have 150 below 8000 RPM?

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