What is the difference between Power and Torque in a car?

Firstly, I'm going to use the units of ft-llbs and horsepower; luckily enough though, kW and horsepower are convertable to eachother and nm and ft-lbs are also convertable to eachother, so my answer is perfectly relevant. The answer above is right, but sort of vague in a way that it's general and the only thing you can grab from it is "engines dont produce same power at every speed" and "torque is rotational force whilst power is the rate at which work is done via force". Now thats all fine and dandy but not specific enough. So firstly, one important thing is to have the formula for horsepower (fun fact: horsepower doesnt exist. It's an imaginary figure used to show peak acceleration. Torque on the other hand, is a practical figure and exists). So how do we find horsepower you may ask? Simple: Horsepower = torque * rpm/5252 (if you look at a dyno chart of a car, the torque and horsepower lines ALWAYS cross at 5252 RPM, NO exceptions. Its just the way power is read) So we CANNOT visualize horsepower. It just isnt possible. It's imaginary. Torque; you can visualize easy; and heres how- Imagine a steel board (that weighs 0 lbs) with one of its ends fixed to the very centre of all 4 wheels of a car. This board is one foot long. Now lets say an engine produces 100 ft-lbs of torque; to visualize this, imagine a 100-lbs weight hanging off the very end of each board, and gravity is ALWAYS below the weight. Effectively, the more weight you put at the board, naturally, the more the wheel will want to twist and spin. Simple physics. So power is a calculated quantity and torque is a practical quantity; and now you know how to visualize torque and you have the formula to calculate horsepower; so you're all set now to understand what the two figures mean :) But to answer your examples; let me help with the formula: 55 KW = 68 HP 180 NM = 133 ft-lbs 68 = 133 * rpm/5252 362388 = 133*rpm = 2724.72 RPM So at 2724.72 RPM the engine is producing those figures. Remember; under 5252 torque is the hgiher number while over 5252 hp is higher.

Power is the rate at which work is done, that is the rate at which energy is transferred by force. The rotational force that is generated by the engine (by which the energy is trasferred) is called torque. RPM is the short for "rotation per minute". This is the speed at which the engine is rotating the flywheel. Internal combustion (IC) engines do not produce same power at all engine speeds, hence there would be an engine speed (RPM) at which the engine would be generating max power. Same is the case with torque. As a characterisitc of IC engine the max torque is normally produced at a lesser engine speed than when the max power is.

Power is the rate at which work is done, that is the rate at which energy is transferred by force. The rotational force that is generated by the engine (by which the energy is trasferred) is called torque. RPM is the short for "rotation per minute". This is the speed at which the engine is rotating the flywheel. Internal combustion (IC) engines do not produce same power at all engine speeds, hence there would be an engine speed (RPM) at which the engine would be generating max power. Same is the case with torque. As a characterisitc of IC engine the max torque is normally produced at a lesser engine speed than when the max power is.