Although a car's horsepower is the statistic you hear about more often, many argue Ft-Lbs of torque is the one that matters. Because our personal cars produce more torque than horsepower, I guess we agree. How many Ft-Lbs of torque do you own?
If you have a sharp memory you may remember our Question of the Day a couple years ago asking "How Much Horsepower Do You Own?" If you are anything like me and don't own anything new and/or fast, the number is pathetically small. So, in an effort to reexamine one of the better questions of the day in recent memory with a twist, while simultaneously making ourselves feel a little better about the underpowered vehicles we own, let's examine the other number. How many Ft-Lbs of torque do you own?
I'm not going to insult the readers who actually have some (any) engineering/scientific/mechanical expertise and try to coherently explain what foot lbs of torque are in a concise manner. A brief Google search will surely produce more reliable/better information than someone who took one science class in four years of college ever could. For our purposes, knowing your vehicles produce a set amount of Ft-Lbs of torque is good enough. So add them up, Cars, Trucks, Motorcycles, ATVs, Motorized Coolers, Ride-on lawnmowers, whatever it is. If you own it and can find/approximate how many Ft-Lbs it produces it counts. What is your Ft-Lbs total?
My own more-impressive-than-horsepower breakdown of Ft-Lbs owned:
1957 Plymouth (1958 spec 318): 330
1967 Scout: 227
1998 4runner:220
1972 Valiant: 185
1974 XL350: 21.7
Total ft-lbs of torque owned: 983.7
My two old Mopars, two mini 4x4s and old dirt bike barely manage to top a Veyron when put together, but it's at least higher than horsepower. How many Ft-Lbs of torque do you own?
(Photo Credit: Owenthatsmyname)