Power to weight ratio is a better measure... - Saab General Bulletin Board - Saabnet.com
The banner above is an advertisment - if it asks you to download software, please ignore.
Site News -
4/9 Saab Owners' Convention Day Pass Raffle |
3/26 M Car Covers (by State of Nine)
[General |
Members |
C900 |
9000 |
NG900 & OG93 |
93 |
95 |
NG95 |
99 |
Sonett |
Vintage Models |
Clubs |
Other Cars |
FAQs |
Gifts |
Member Photo Galleries |
Member Directory |
Classifieds |
Manuals |
*Buddy Registry |
*Mileage Registry |
Polls |
What's New |
Raffle |
Photo of the Month |
Sponsors]
[Main General Bulletin Board | BBFAQ |
Next by Date | Post Followup ]
Member Login / Signup - Members see fewer ads. - Latest Member Gallery Photos
Power to weight ratio is a better measure...
Posted by Noel (more from Noel) on Thu, 26 May 2005 06:55:25
In Reply to: How much horsepower is enough and isn't there a more, J, Tue, 24 May 2005 16:25:34
Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup
and having more torque than horsepower--a Saab attribute.
For example, my '96 9K has 200 hp, 238 lb-ft of torque. That's about 16 pounds for each horsepower. Plus the max torque is higher than the max HP, which is what makes a car feel more powerful. And even my daughter's '95 CS auto feels decent because her torque is higher than the HP (170 hp, 192 torque). And with the torque coming in fairly low, the engines feel very flexible. We all know this, it's a reason we have Saabs!
A few guys in my town have built 1965 Shelby Cobra replicas, which weigh 2200 pounds and have (depending on the car) from 300 to 400 horsepower, and gobs of low end torque. They power to weight ratios of 5.5 to 7.33 lbs per horsie. You definitely notice it when you punch one of these bad boys! I met another guy who has a Cobra with 547 HP. All their 0-60 times are in the 3.8 to 4.6 range.
I think HP numbers in ordinary production cars are an ego thing for a lot of people. On the road, they think they have something fast, until a car with a better power to weight ratio and more power/torque at the right revs blows them away.
The old racer saying about power is, "Some is good, more is better," is still true, but it's not just raw power.
posted by 69.163.3...
Posts in this Thread:
Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup
Post a Followup
No Site Registration is Required to Post - Site Membership is optional (Member Features List), but helps to keep the site online
for all Saabers. If the site helps you, please consider helping the site by becoming a member.
StateOfNine.com
|
SaabClub.com
|
Jak Stoll Performance
|
M Car Covers
|
Ad Available
|
Random Saabnet.com Member Gallery Photos (Click Image)
This is a moderated bulletin board - Posting is a privilege, not a right.
Unsolicited commercial postings are not allowed (no spam). Please, no For Sale or Wanted postings, SERIOUSLY.
Classifieds are to be listed in The Saab Network Classifieds pages.
This is a problem solving forum for over 250,000 Saab owners, so expect to see
problems discussed here even though our cars are generally very reliable. This is not an anything goes
type of forum. Saabnet.com has been a moderated forum since 1988. For usage guidelines, see the
Saabnet.com Mission and Purpose Page. Please remember that you are
not anonymous. Site Contact | Site Donations | Other Sites by SP -
Poverty2Prosperity.org | Run Club Menlo Park | ScreenBot
Site Members do not see red text instructions, bottom of the page anchor ads, or box ads.
Click here to see all
the Site Membership Benefits!