In small displacement, high HP cars, the engine has to be wound tight to get that HP. These cars are limited in torque and have a small RPM range where they make the most power. The more gears a car has, the easier it is to stay in that RPM range while accelerating.
It is easier to keep the engine in the “power band” while accelerating. The power band is the RPM range where the engine puts out the maximum amount of torque.
I remember from engineering classes that there’s a reason why there’s a maximum amount of revs to get full power from your engine and that going beyond it gives you no more power. But then from a motoring magazine I learned that to take into account the slight drop in revs when changing gear you have to go over this rev limit.
Reminds me of the chasm that my Mum’s old car had in the gear ratios when going from 2-3 or 3-4. On that particular 4 speed gearbox 3rd was a relatively long gear and made overtaking with a 1.2l engine awkward. I’ve still no idea how a relatively young design of car had a 4spd gearbox.
They tended to look a lot prettier than they do now. Compare the Sixties-era GTO with the warmed over Holden that bears the GTO name (there’s an even worse looking prototype from the mid-1990s that was designed by people at Pontiac who’d never heard of the GTO before, but I can’t find a pic). Mind you, it is possible for a modern car to look stunning.
In addition to that, some of the engines were tested with outrageous modifications to them. Aircraft-octane petrol, timing set to an advance that was on the ragged edge of knock, negative-pressure exhaust chambers, air pre-cooling by use of refrigerator coils. One of my professors actually worked at GM during the late 60’s era, and told us with some level of contrition how many cars he saw with absolutely fake power ratings from that time period. He reported on one time when a marketing team came in, and told them that a certain version of the 350 must have 350hp or more, “no matter what.” And when they couldn’t get any higher than about 300 despite all their fudging efforts, the marketing people just put “350” in the adverts (the “official” listing said something like 320 gross, but then the dealers were, allegedly, told to leak out that GM was “deliberately underreporting” the power to “satisfy the insurance companies”. Some day I’d like to find out if official horsepower ever made a difference to insurance actuarial tables or not…).
In contrast, my grrl Fierra’s 436hp 2008 Corvette probably comes fairly close to that rating at the rear wheels, from drive-up dyno sheets I have. I’ve seen a “stock” dyno sheet for that car (with the NPP option, which she has as well) that was 440 hp.
(Let me add that 436hp and 424 ft-lbf of torque in that car makes it so bloody fast that I’m more than a bit leery to accelerate in it the rare times I’ve got to drive it…it actually hurt my neck the first time I floored it in 2nd.)
If both cars have enough power and/or low enough gearing to spin thier wheels, then such a tug-of-war is a traction contest, not a power OR torque contest. The car with the most weight on the drive wheels will almost certainly win, unless the other car employs traction enhancing techiques (high hitch point (with RWD) , tire chains, 4WD, anti-spin traction control, etc)
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For example I think this 2006 vette is a much nicer looking car than its counterpart from 1953.
In any event, I was talking about from a mechanical point of view.
This past weekend, I got to drive a car that has 440 hp and weighs a 1,000 lbs. less.
:eek:
I think I impressed the owner, it seems I am the only driver that hasn’t spun it the first time the loud pedal was applied.
In the case of the Pontiac Aztek, I presume you’re talking about this kind of Beholder. 
Well, from a mechanical point of view, cars could quite often be fixed with little more than a ball peen hammer and a screw driver. Which was good, because on some of the cars, you had to do quite a lot of fixing.
And it should be noted that for the first time in 40 years, the fastest production car is American.
Good grief, 1000 pounds less - what car was that?
From what I’ve seen of old ads, period films and TV, and so on, they did tend to stress the engine size or number of cylinders more than they did a model name. For instance n the ST:TOS ep where they end up in an Ancient Rome like society, a magazine ad avertises the “Jupiter 8” car, and Stooge fans will no doubt remember the “Bunion 8”. Presumably you saw “8” a lot because they were proud to offer 8 cylinders.
It was aFactory Five Roadster. The owner told me it came with a dyno sheet for 440 at the rear wheels.