Discuss Bill's answer to: How does Torque help win a race?

There's probly a better way to explain it, but. Torque is how much force is pushing the vehicle. Measured in foot-pounds or inch-pounds. Torque can drive a vehicle out of a corner at low rpm. The force that pushes you back in the seat when your accelerating is torque, once the rpm's go up, torque falls off and horsepower propels the vehicle faster down the straights. In racing like roadcourses or SCORE (desert racing), that have a lot of tight turns or steep climbs. Torque is more,or just as important as horsepower. Tracks with long straights and wide turns, where you can keep your speed up, horsepower rules. A 2-stroke dirtbike has high horsepower, but low torque. You have to keep the rpm's high or the engine lugs down and you loose all your power. On the other side, a diesel engine has high torque, but low horsepower. It can pull a heavy load with ease at low rpm. But not really very fast in a footrace. I guess it all just depends on what kind of race your in. Hope this helped!!!