you'll get about 10 different explanations, some of which will make sense and some of which won't. People just have different ways of trying to explain things. At least one person will be right but you'll have no idea which. After around 3 or 4 pages of people bickering over the finer points, you will have lost interest and still be none the wiser.

Have we had these discussions before? oh yes :D

Welcome to the forum, btw :lol:

lol ty no its ok both of u have been gr8 im sure some one will explane it in a way ill under stand soon thank u both any way :p kinda funny watching u 2 battle it out :P :D :P any way im goina t obed now ill hav another read to morrow morning nn

Don't let the units get in the way. Power in bhp is still energy/time, same as watts or any other measure of power you care to think of. Much as I hate to admit it, imho metric units such as watts make so much more sense than daft units such as horsepower.

I do apologise for not volunteering an explanation right now but its really too late for my brain to get into gear. I'm hereby going to crawl back under my rock until i can be more useful.

Were not battling, these discussions happen always, and i love them, when you get big long pages like this.

You learn loads no matter what your opinion, and engine discussions are what interest me most, there nought more interesting than an internal combustion engine i reckon.

Yea but when you study you always learn in watts and newtons etc, thats why its easier, like when my dad talks in imperial its like another langauge and to him its easier than metric, strange.

I trust i too will be learning stuff when Ophic is awake tommorow, i wish there was an Engine class in college, i dont think id ever lose interest.

its not entirely relevant to engines but see how you get on with this:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/fpte4.htm

now i'm off to bed :)

the simplist way to describe torque, is that it is a measurment of leverage

All you need to know is that torque means acceleration! For example, the SV has "low-end torque", meaning low end acceleration. Right?!

Hi Didge,

First of all... welcome to the site, where abouts in Tunbridge Wells are you? I used to live there, and still frequent the area often!

Torque and BHP are often areas of confusion. I've not read all this thread, and I'm sure others have attempted to describe the difference, but let me have a go too! :lol:

Torque is measured as force x length (eg: Lb-Ft). Essentially this figure describes the rotational force that an engine can create. Similarly to opening a jar of pickles for your Mum - she may not be able to create enough torque on the lid of the jar, but given to her trusty iron-fist son (me), who can effectively twist the lid harder and apply the necessary torque to open the lid. That's how it works with my folks anyway :wink:

BHP is a measurement of the amount of practical work an engine can do. Historically, 1 Horepower, is the amount of work required to lift 33,000 lbs of weight, 1 foot in the air. Sounds a bit silly I know :lol: This can also be expressed as foot-pounds-per-second. Therefore, 1 Hp is 550 Fps. In a nutshell, BHP is a measurement of how fast an engine can deliver it's power.

Hugely simplified explanations... and hopefully not contradictory ones. I do hope I've not given incorrect advice ;)

wrong. Power means acceleration. Torque is more of an engine characteristic that tells us how it delivers that power. This is why manufacturers quote power to weight ratios not torque to weight. However one effect of lots of torque low down in the rev range is that the engine also develops quite a lot of power low down - and hence you have your low end acceleration. But an engine that produces more power, even at higher revs, if geared down, will accelerate faster, even if it produces less torque.