Forget horsepower; tell us about torque
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To the Editor:
I always dislike your emphasis on horsepower.
In the Aug. 24 story about the new Ram 1500, you do it again -- you point out the difference in horsepower between the new Ram and the Ford F-150 with EcoBoost ("Ram mpg rises 25% with V-6, less drag," autonews.com).
Few people actually will use the full horsepower, which is typically available at very high rpms. Who revs up a pickup truck engine to more than 5,000 or 6,000 rpm?
What people feel and use is the torque, and the difference is much more striking than with the horsepower.
Ford's 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 in the F-150 delivers a peak torque of about 420 pounds-feet vs. 269 pounds-feet in the 3.6-liter V-6 engine in the Ram 1500. That torque, especially for the F-150, is available at much lower rpms. That is what makes the engine in the F-150 feel and perform a lot stronger.
I wish you would put less emphasis on horsepower and more on torque because that is what we use daily. We rarely tap into the real horsepower of an engine.
