Why don't Porsches have high torque numbers. And do Porsche fans even care about that ?

Question

I have seen reviews that always quip about the lack of torque for Porsche. I am a Aston Martin fan, want 2 buy one in 2008. Not a Porsche basher by any means

Answer 1

I would consider many of Porsche's current offerings to have rather high torque numbers: the 997 Carrera S peaks at 295 foot/lbs; the 997 Turbo peaks at 460 foot/lbs; The GT3 peaks at 298 foot/lbs. None of these are exactly "low" torque numbers. The DB9's peak of 420 would fit above a few Porsche models, and under the Turbo.

As HP is merely a measure of Torque over time, what you are really looking at is what the power curve of the engine is like, and how good it will be at moving mass. When looking at the Carrera S against the DB9, keep in mind that the DB9's engine must move almost 900 lbs more car from a stop, making more need of that lower end power (though outside of the Elise, you'll be hard pressed to find any real lighweights nowadays).

As you go back towards older Porsches, you are probably more likely to find cars that you might consider lacking in torque. The old 2.0L - 2.4L 911S was tuned to produce a good 190hp at the cost of low end torque... making it a great car on the track as long as you could keep the revs up and the engine in it's happy spot. It made for a more interesting experience for everyday and slower driving - you can still often find the much less powerful, but more "torquey" 911t will outperform the much quicker s at slower speed Autocross events. However, you have to go back quite a ways to find these examples.

Given the current power bands and amount of torque on hand, I feel like this is probably much more a long based perception you are hearing. The Aston Martin will probably feel like it pushes harder out of corners because it has more torque, but in final performance, probably just a seat of the pants feeling combined with well worn preconecptions rather than an actual difference.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

Because they dont need more torque. They are fast enough. The cars are very aerodynamic and light so they go faster. Porsche owners do not care how strong the engine is as long it is still faster than most 8 cylinder cars.
-Aston Martin V8 vantage has a V8 with around 350 HP
It goes 175 MPH and 0-60 in 4.8 s.
-Porsche Cayman S has a 6 cylinder engine with 295HP and 251 torque. It goes 171 MPH and 0-60 in 5.1 s.
See what I mean. The Porsche is much weaker but goes nearly as fast as an Aston Martin.

Answer 4

Porsches are not popular for their high horsepower and torque numbers because they don't have that. What they're known for is the way they drive and the experience the driver receives. They way they're built, the handling, the weight distribution, the gear ratios, etc. all combine to provide an experience few other sports cars can deliver. I'm pretty sure Porsche fans wouldn't be fans had they not known all of the above and the true legend of Porsche.

Answer 5

Hello,

the definition of mechanical power is torque x frequency, in this case, the engine speed. The advertised numbers of a cars are the peak power and peak torque. These number say nothing specific about the car and honestly speaking, they are really not comparable between cars, only a guidenance. Porsche has engines with torque values close to the peak torque at the entire RPM range (a flat torque curve), resulting relatively low peak powers. But the power band is wider, so you don't have to rev up engine to make to burn some rubber. You don't have to switch between gears when driving around, after rolling out, you put it to fifth or sixth and don't care about anything. When you look at the torque figures of other makes you see that those fantastic values exist only in narrow bands, outside these bands they are stumbling at higher gears, and one shall often change gears to stay cool :D

By the way, as far as I know, the greatest acceleration values among street sport cars, was measured in the Porsche models (around 1.3 G's with the 997 Turbo), so sometimes less can be more :)

I would always choose an engine with a constant rate of torque (even if it's not the greatest value), which doesn't necessarily make the best HP (you know it's a product of torque and RPM), because most sports car makers make peak power with revving up the engine to the skies without real torque (-> japanese cars).

Regards

Answer 6

Just a guess, but it could be that Porsche doesn't want those high Torque numbers.
I don't think smoking off tires and accelerated drive line wear are Porsche's whole thing

Answer 7

Torque is used to pull things, Long haul trucks have massive torque measurements because they are built to pull massive loads.

A Porsche is built for speed using a light strong body construct, so it does not have to pull in the same way. It has to cope with extremely high revs, whereas the truck has to provide more power per rev.