Originally Posted by TARDCORE

So at work today my friend and I were driving a 2008 charger r/t. My friend was like "oh man this car is just so fast it just puts your head back in your seat everytime you floor it!" I told him "no, your just feeling alot of torque, thats all, my rsx will smoke this fat lady on wheels" He was like "what!?!? this thing has like 350 horsepower" blah blah blah. Anway I explained the difference between peak horsepower and torque to him to best of my knowledge to him. He still didn't get it. Anway I want someone to clarify this question to me so next time I can properly explain it to someone who doesn't know jack **** about how horsepower and torque play on a car throught the power band.

Heres basically what i told him: If you take two cars that way about the same with the same drive train, and put 2 different motors in them, Motor A putting 300 hp and 340 ft/lbs of torque and Motor B putting 340 hp and 280 ft/lbs torque, The car with Motor A will FEEL faster according to the butt dyno right? BUT the car with motor B in it will win in a straightline due to top end power. I told him torque is more helpfull on the low to mid power band range where as raw HP comes in the top rang which in a drag race is where you are at? Can someone shed some light as to why my explanation to him was hard to understand? To me it makes sense but apparently not. Sorry for the long wall of text