Torque - what actually is it

[ATTAK Z]

Yea electric cars have lots of torque ... what else ?

low maintenance only has 1 moving part to the engine. compared to the 100's in a combustion engine.

True

[rtbiscuit]

Yea electric cars have lots of torque ... what else ?

low maintenance only has 1 moving part to the engine. compared to the 100's in a combustion engine.

True

 

no oil, only consumable in the engine would be brushes

[CrumbMC]

Yea electric cars have lots of torque ... what else ?

 

Electric motors work in almost the opposite way to what i explained above

 

They have constant power - flat power curve. so, for the same amount of supplied current, they have lots of torque at low rpm but as they increase in revs the torque decreases... i think

 

Edit, electric DC motor curve i just googled:

 

Edited April 25, 2013 by CrumbMC

[Stutopia]

Yea electric cars have lots of torque ... what else ?

 

Fuel costs are ludicrously low, couple of quid for 80 miles. Road tax is zero. A car with 4 independent motors on each corner would be pretty serious, even with today's tech.

 

I'm not saying the current technology works for everyone, but I know two leaf drivers who have them as town runabouts and commuters, but have proper cars for journeys over 50 miles! If your second car in a family comes with zero tax and low fuel and low insurance, but can go shopping/work/school run, it can't be all bad. Given the way technology goes (look at 80s computers versus today's smartphones), in 20 years they could make something A bit spesh I think. I'm not selling my Zed tomorrow, but I was genuinely impressed and genuinely enjoyed my spin in a leaf.

 

Not trying to hijack the thread, the high, flat torque from zero impressed me.

[CrumbMC]

electric cars are expensive. why give people who can afford a brand new leaf AND another car a tax break. load of trollup.

 

plus having 2 cars means that twice the manufacturing has gone into it so its hardly eco friendly. especially when the batteries are put together over almost every continent in the world

 

but all thats an argument worthy of it's own thread

[rtbiscuit]

the tesla car has impressive performance figures and looks like a lotus.

[Dblock]

Yea electric cars have lots of torque ... what else ?

low maintenance only has 1 moving part to the engine. compared to the 100's in a combustion engine.

True

 

no oil, only consumable in the engine would be brushes

 

+1. I love petrols but they are so bloody wasteful. They have to have cold air routed round and into the cylinders, pistons, cams, crank anything that weighs something is costing energy to move. After all that most of the energy is wasted as sound or heat.

[Stutopia]

electric cars are expensive. why give people who can afford a brand new leaf AND another car a tax break. load of trollup.

 

plus having 2 cars means that twice the manufacturing has gone into it so its hardly eco friendly. especially when the batteries are put together over almost every continent in the world

 

but all thats an argument worthy of it's own thread

 

True, but the assumption there being they would only have one regular car, which isn't the case in the two owners I know. If you are a two "regular" car family, swapping one for an electric still adds up. If you throw green miles into it for the battery, the assumption is that all your normal car build plus consumables are all sourced in the UK - unlikely.

 

You can get a new leaf on lease for similar money per month as a lease regular car. Hand it back after 2 years if you don't want the monster payment. Also, we all know when a technology becomes widely adopted, prices plummet.

[gsexr]

Theres no doubt about it electric cars will improve

but

If there so good for us why dont they make them so you just plug them into the mains to charge. Is it because we would all be charging them at work for free and they would have to find a way to tax us on it ?

Then you`d have to increase the amount of electricity we produce so would need to burn all that oil you saved from petrol keeping the power stations going.

Or you could use the 400 years of coal we have in the ground but then you`d end up with a large unionised industry again which their frightened of and so it goes on.

Happy days all round......... i think theres a little way to go yet so i`ll just stick to me petrol.

Petrol`s made from oil. We make synthetic oil. It aint never gonna run out. Its all about tax, get with the program... lol

[rtbiscuit]

You can plug them into the mains, that's how you charge them.

[rtbiscuit]

Also electric won't take over, its just a stop gap until hydrogen fuel cells become viable.

[Stutopia]

One day everyone's car will have a little fusion reactor in the boot. One little pellet of uranium, you're good for 1,000,000 miles!

 

But you'll have to wear a lead cod piece to drive anywhere.

Edited April 26, 2013 by SuperStu

[rtbiscuit]

to be honest combustion engines won't die, there are already prototype fuels in production based around hydrogen infused molecular balls. the balls are so tiny that a glass of them feels like water. and can be run in a normal combustion engine that only needs minor tweaks to run on it. coupled with the fact you can fill up the engine the old school way a t apump makes it far more likely. but at the moment its to expensive to produce and getting the hydfrogen on a large scale is un feasable.

[Ricey]

Dear Andrew,

 

Understeer is when you hit the wall with the front of the car.

 

Oversteer is when you hit the wall with the rear of the car.

 

Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall.

 

Torque is how far you take the wall with you.

 

Drat I was just about to steal this from you but you beat me to it!

[Stutopia]

I learnt more about Zed torque today.

 

Find a quiet Scottish road, leave it in fourth, never need to change gear. Haul ass.

 

This my first proper run in the Zed. I've never shifted so few times to go so quick!

[Leeroy]

I think I read the follwing description of torque somewhere. My attention span is abysmal though, so it may be utter b*llocks.

You have two cyclists in a race. Bear with me, it's more interesting than it sounds

 

One cyclist is a beefcake and has wasted lots of time around other beefackes in the gym, which has led to him having legs like tree trunks. He's not very fit though, as he'd rather be bench pressing than running.

His opponent is a skinny mofo, the sorta guy who only eats what he knows he needs to burn off during his lunchtime run, and he can run like Forest Gump.

My money's on Mr Muscle so far.

The race is a half mile sprint and they cross the finish line together, heres why ;

The beefcake exerts lots of 'twist' or 'torque' through his crank and even though he's a bit heavy and seems very relaxed, he maintains a good speed.

Even though the skinny dude's crank 'twist' isn't that powerful he peddles like a maniac and matches his opponent's speed.

 

The beefcake could be a 350Z and the skinnydude a Civic Type 'R'......

[CrumbMC]

I think I read the follwing description of torque somewhere. My attention span is abysmal though, so it may be utter b*llocks.

You have two cyclists in a race. Bear with me, it's more interesting than it sounds

 

One cyclist is a beefcake and has wasted lots of time around other beefackes in the gym, which has led to him having legs like tree trunks. He's not very fit though, as he'd rather be bench pressing than running.

His opponent is a skinny mofo, the sorta guy who only eats what he knows he needs to burn off during his lunchtime run, and he can run like Forest Gump.

My money's on Mr Muscle so far.

The race is a half mile sprint and they cross the finish line together, heres why ;

The beefcake exerts lots of 'twist' or 'torque' through his crank and even though he's a bit heavy and seems very relaxed, he maintains a good speed.

Even though the skinny dude's crank 'twist' isn't that powerful he peddles like a maniac and matches his opponent's speed.

 

The beefcake could be a 350Z and the skinnydude a Civic Type 'R'......

 

thats probably a bit clearer than my bar twisting analogy. same principal though, the power is equal. say big guy has ten units of torque and ten rotational speed in his pedalling and the skinny has only 5 torque but twenty rotational speed, they create the same power = torque x rotational speed