Originally Posted by silvcobra
Low end torque is exceptional at moving big weight and is why diesel engines are prefered to move heavy loads. The more torque you have the less the engine will slow when you drop the clutch and when you weigh close to 4000lbs big torque helps. Gearing changes help some by moving the wheel torque by icreasing rev speed at the sacrifice of wheel turn but it does not completely make up for the torque difference. And remember, when you lower your rearend gear, you can also increase the number of times you have to shift. And once more I can go back and ask "where does the car make its peak power?" Supra’s are always a great example. A mid to high 10 sec. Supra will usually trap about 10mph higher (140+) than a bigger displacement car such as a mustang or camaro (130+). Go look at some timeslips, I'm not making this up. Judging by the mph the Supra obviously made more peak power but the bigger v8 car had a more usable powerband. Thus the Supra guy brags that his car made 700hp and the Mustang guy brags that his 500hp car stayed beside a 700hp car. And also I believe turbo supras weigh around 3600lbs – not very light for a non-v8 car.
Gearing can and does make the difference. You have to have a much "lower" gear to make a high rpm car even have the same shifting points as a lower rpm car.. just think of it all relative to mph, not rpm.. thats why I sometimes love to see MPH axis dyno's
Sorry, but mid 10 second supra's trap higher with similar times compared to other cars not because of the torque curve, but because not many Supra owners want to butcher their street sports cars to make them dragstrip specific, like many muscle car owners do. So they still go the the strip, but with 6 spds, and DOT slicks or street tires.. compared to high stall auto muscle cars with suspension work for launching. Kinda hard to compare the two...
Compare Supra's that have been drag prepared and its completely different.
On a turbo car, also, the whole "torque off the line" ordeal can pretty much be thrown out the window because of anti-lag or full throttle launch/2-step/etc etc.. Boost off the line helps
