Quote:
Originally Posted by 8cd03gro
Torque below 3k RPM's or so is completely irrelevant in road racing or any kind of racing for that matter. While it may be easier to stay in single gears and use the low-end torque to carry you out of apexes and not have to downshift entering turns, it is not the fastest way around a track. If you're doing any kind of serious road racing and say, "i'm not happy with my torque output under 3,500 rpm" people will laugh at you. The 5.0's torque output is very similar to the camaro's in the USABLE rpm range, if not higher. You don't race at 3,000 rpm. A linear torque curve or one that peaks near redline is always best for racing because you will produce more power that way. Look at the wrx STi for example. On the stock turbo, those things can peak at over 350ft lbs to all four wheels, but it's at <4k rpm's, so they don't make over 300awhp or so and won't break out of the mid 12's at best. If that 350 ft lbs was higher in the rpm range, those cars could be making 380+awhp and running mid 11's.
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As they should. No one said all you need is low end torque and a nonlinear dropoff at redline. Unless you are already a pro driver, low end torque is an advantage on a roadcourse. The less you have to shift a standard (non race) gearbox the better. However, even the pros benefit from low end torque. Checkout the torque profile on the corvette race cars. Monster torque, but lower redline than stock (talking about the C6R.GT in ALMS vs the stock ZR1 that it is based on).
There was a guy who won a time trial challenge at MSR last year in his Viper ACR and he stayed in 3rd almost the whole time! If that's your "baseline" for the track, and then you throw in the occasional downshift and upshift at a few key points, you will be pretty damn fast. I use the same strategy in my C6Z. I'll stay in one or two gears early on and many times I'm running people down with just that strategy. As the day goes on, I'll start shifting more, but it does not translate to a very large drop in lap time.
Not saying it's the absolute fastest way to drive. Just saying I've seen first hand that it's just easier to drive fast with high torque. I should also mention that I've tracked a Lotus Elise that has almost no torque and required a lot more skill to go fast.