I own one and after driving a Focus SVT and other various performance oriented Inline 4's (RSX, Madza 3), I can say that your Inline 4 doesn't have 300lbs-ft of torque. That is something you really miss after driving a Vic for a while. Instantaneous reaction, no need to wind the car out. It'll pull from pretty much any speed.
Large engines that make no power are the engines that will last a million miles - I know a Vic that did 800,000 Km before the body went out (Canada, eh?) These vehicles in the list attached, they all have either big engines making no power or small engines making no power. It's proportionate to the body size of the car. http://www.theautonet.com/en/2014/02/28/10-cars-that-have-traveled-over-15-million-miles
the torque is great sure, but 4100 pounds eats that up and than some. the drive train isnt doing that car any favors either. potato has a crown vic with a 3.55 rear end and i think thats as close as it gets. weighing 2400 with a 4.7 final drive is the answer. it was never meant to be a sports car as we all know but neither was my little economy car either. line them up. and as for longevity that's a no brainer. everyone talks about hondas like they are the most reliable cars ever, i think the crown vic takes it.
torque is what gets you moving at the end of the day. I like my i4s, particularly turbo i4, but even I can't argue with the torque of a big displacement engine (typically v8)
its an age old myth that torque is everything. my mother got herself one of those new volvo station wagons. they claim it makes 325 foot pounds and 300 bhp from a 3.0 turbo. the car has a short 6 speed auto and dosen't fall flat on its face after 4500rpm and i have to be honest, its a sleeper right out the box. torque is only a third of the battle and its the least important third. horsepower to weight and gearing make a car fast but i gotta be careful or this will descend into chaos real quick.
torque spins the trans. the trans is what gives you the leverage. wheel torque does the work not engine torque. you have twice the torque i have twice the mechanical advantage. we have the same wheel torque.
yes, that's simple physics to, yet rarely applies as your additional mechanical advantage is rarely that drastic versus the additional engine torque
Torque is a good 75% of the battle when you're trying to propel a 4100lb hunk of metal. The crown vic is a tank and will last forever, but it's inherently American. I had a bunch of leaks that needed fixing when I got mine. They also like to shoot spark plugs out of the head. And the intakes all start leaking at some point in the car's life. It moves pretty good for how heavy it is. I did a couple of 0-60 runs both ways on a flat section of interstate. The average between them was 7.8 or something. I really hate how everyone assumes that I'm trying to look like a cop though. I've really started to hate that.
I gotta disagree with you on that. Take your 300 torque crown vic. Let's assume it has the 2.73 rear end. Second gear in the vic is 1.55. Together they multiply out to 4.23. 300 times 4.23 = 1269 foot pounds of wheel torque. my car makes 140 foot pounds but it has a 4.7 final drive with a 2.015 second gear. 140 * 2.015 * 4.7 = 1325 foot pounds. i have more torque in second than he does!
I have a 3.55 rear end. And 17 inch wheels. What do you drive? Whatever it is, I bet the crown vic would pull away from it in 2nd. It's a fucking rocket in second gear. I forgot we were talking about torque. I also don't have 350hp.
In second, theres the kicker. You are comparing second gear of a 4 speed gearbox to 2nd gear of a 5 speed gearbox. A very unfair comparison as 2nd gear in the 4 speed effectively slots in between 2 and 3 on yours. Nor does potato have a 2.73 rear end. Plus your shorter gearing impedes top end speed.
I know he has a 3.55 but that's not as common i think as the 2.73. I have a civic coupe with a stroked b16b. I'll game that bet potato. Maybe the first half of second but once I hit 6k I think I'll get you.
And as for the top speed, I've never tried. I'll run out of power or room before I hit red line in 5th I think tho. This was supposed to be an edit sorry about that wrong button.
Nah its simple fact that if you gear a 9000rpm motor down by a factor of 2, you get 4500rpm at the wheel. Gear it down by 3, you get a bit more torque at the wheel for more acceleration, but you also only get 3000rpm at the wheel. Your acceleration improves on shorter gearing, your top speed falls, also to achieve highway speed your engine must rev higher creating more noise and burning more fuel. The b16b offsets for that with a higher redline than the vic does. Your maths earlier on torque is also flawed again, the b16b has a very narrow power band in which it produces that torque. The vic produces that torque across almost the entire rev range.
Just had a look at some dyno charts actually, the b16b has to wait until near on 2/3rds of the way through the rev range before its truly on song, the vic, about 1/3rd. Yes at peak your civic can match (you're only just barely exceeding even) the wheel torque in second (but not first), the vic hits its peak far earlier and maintains it far longer.
It's a spoon b16b so it's actually a 1.8. And the power and is not that bad. It pulls hard from 6k all the way to 10.5k. But it makes usable torque from 2k.
Oh wait, stroke kit and massively increased redline, so really, your civic isnt a stock civic and yet you're bragging about it being able to nail a vic when that vic is in a factory state. Fair, very fair. Dont get me wrong, I dont like the vic, I'm not a huge fan of v8s (although the idea of a 1uz swap into my dream car isnt against my better judgement). Hell I prefer the exhaust note of an i4 because I am a dirty little bastard. But, torque and when the torque is produced is far more important than a raw peak horsepower figure.
It's not stock but it's not particularly impressive either. I've seen all motor civics that would roast any crown vic that's street able supercharger or otherwise. My beef is the vic is too heavy to be fast and 300 foot pounds of torque won't be enough to keep me from running away from it.
