What is BHP (break horse power)? I know the more it is the faster your car is but what exactly does...?

Question

It do to make your car faster, how does it work?

Answer 1

Once again there are lots of people answering questions when they don't know what they're talking about.

Break horsepower is a measure of the power (energy over time) that your engine can apply through the wheels of the car. It determines the *torque* (twisting power) that the wheels can then apply against the road.

The horsepower that an engine produces determines two things that are noticeable to the driver:

- The maximum rate of acceleration of the car
- The top speed of the car.

The reasons for the first are obvious. The reason for the second is, that as your car goes faster, the external forces that make your car slow down increase (wind, friction etc) therefore you need greater power to make the car go faster.

There are several definitions of horsepower (it's not a metric or SI unit), but when talking about cars, the definition usually meant is 0.7457 kW (33,000 ft·lbs per minute).

Answer 2

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RE:
What is BHP (break horse power)? I know the more it is the faster your car is but what exactly does...?
It do to make your car faster, how does it work?

Answer 3

BHP or Brake Horse Power is a measurement of power.

In simple terms it is used to measure the power your engine will apply to your wheels to make them turn. BUT, that is only 1 aspect of performance. For example, 150 BHP is fantastic in a motorcycle but utterly useless in a truck. And vice versa, a truck engine may produce 100's of BHP but it won't break any speed records.

Answer 4

OMG- Not a correct answer in the lot so far!

BRAKE Horsepower is the horsepower delivered at the wheels as opposed to the CRANK Horsepower being the power delivered at the flywheel attached to the crankshaft.

Both a measured with Dynometers, but of different types.
Brake is measured on a full car dynometer and crank is on a static dynometer where the engine is not even in a vehicle.

Obviously BRAKE is the one that matters to enthusiasts since we can go to specialty shops and have that measured for tuning purposes.

Answer 5

bhp is the power your car is pulling the more bhp you have the better but it is also good to have high torque if your into fast cars 200+ bhp is good or if your a serious petrol head 400+ is a good figure

Answer 6

Hi
It all goes back to when we had horses on the road i.e 1 horse power so if you have 16 BHP You have the same as the speed combinded of 16 horses.

Answer 7

1 horse power is equivalent to 742 watts. i.e. 1 horse power would run 7 100 watt light bulbs with a bit left to spare.

When cars were 1st built (about 100 years ago) people mostly used horses to pull carts around and to show the power of the early engines they would give the readings in "horse power", i.e. the power equivalent to one horse.

Of course this is fairly inaccurate cos horses come in different shapes and sizes.

Basicaly it's the power that the engine can potentially generate when compared to the power one horse can generate.

Answer 8

Brake Horsepower

Answer 9

In the old days, they used to measure everything by how many horses were pulling the thing. So imagine 300 horses pulling your ride. That's fairly strong. From history they just continued this measurement to the point that now we don't ever even see a horse. But strength is measured by horses. Or horse power.

Answer 10

In general:
Nominal is derived from the size of the engine and the piston speed and is only accurate at a pressure of 48 kPa (7 psi).[18]
Indicated or gross horsepower (theoretical capability of the engine) [ PLAN/ 33000]
minus frictional losses within the engine (bearing drag, rod and crankshaft windage losses, oil film drag, etc.), equals
Brake / net / crankshaft horsepower (power delivered directly to and measured at the engine's crankshaft)
minus frictional losses in the transmission (bearings, gears, oil drag, windage, etc.), equals
Shaft horsepower (power delivered to and measured at the output shaft of the transmission, when present in the system)
minus frictional losses in the universal joint/s, differential, wheel bearings, tire and chain, (if present), equals
Effective, True (thp) or commonly referred to as wheel horsepower (whp)