Hi What is that really matters when it comes to speed horsepower or torque?

You want torque, that is what spins the drive shaft to move you. HPis the measure of a motors volumetric efficiency and the torque it produces is the amount of twisting force it can apply to the drive shaft.

I own a shop, a drag car & truck, and think this; This question has been on here many times, and is kind of hard to explain to where one can understand the full meaning of the answer. Torque is; Anything that causes or tends to cause torsion in a body; the rotary force in an engine. Think of it this way; If you were to turn a bolt with a short wrench, you wouldn't have the torque a long wrench would have, even though you applied the same amount of horsepower to the wrench. Horsepower is; A unit of the rate of work, equal to 550 pounds lifted one foot in one second. At some point in the graph the torque curve, and the horsepower curve will intersect. At this point you may have more horsepower, than you do torque. How much of this torque that is applied to the wheels is determined by the gearing. An engine with a lot of torque usually has brute strength at the lower spectrum, while horsepower really shows up on the high end of the spectrum. Torque gets you moving, so the amount of torque that can be gotten to the wheels is more critical than horsepower. Both are equally important, but what one gets to the ground is the main factor. Torque will peak earlier than horsepower. A large displacment engine makes massive amounts of torque, but falls off when the torque and horsepower become equal on the graph. Horsepower is critical as it is what keeps the vehicle moving once its going. A vehicle can be geared to pull wheelies, but may fall on its face once the two become equal. The short wrench may not be able to break a stuck bolt loose, but once it is broke loose, the short wrench is able to turn the bolt faster than the long wrench due to the length of the revolution. A long wrench has more initial power, but the short wrench is able to move the bolt faster due to the shorter distance it has to travel in order to move the same amount of distance. Glad to help out, Good Luck!!!

music has anser...short version is torque gets car moving but runs out fast...HP keeps car moving faster...TQ low rpm...HP at high rpm

Without going into a 1000 word answer the simple answer is that if you have to choose one of the other you should choose hp. Simply stated, TQ gets you going and HP keeps you going and keeps you going faster. So we take the basic measurement for speed which is the 1/4 mile and we take two cars that weight the exact same and have the exact same aerodynamics. Car 1 has 400hp and 300tq and car 2 has 300hp and 400tq, car 1 will run a faster 1/4 mile time. For the second part of your question, the factory hp and tq ratings you get are to the flywheel. You always will make less hp and tq to your wheels then what the factory states you make at the flywheel. I dont remember the exact number but I believe it is around 15%. So the amount of hp you are making to your wheels is about 15% less then the factory flywheel rating. There are certain cars out there though that are under rated from the factory and when you put them on a dyno you find out that they are actually making the amount of hp and tq to the wheels that the factory claims is to the fly wheel. This is done for insurance purposes and also it is much better looking to have your car make more power then stated then it is to have it make less. It is very poor for a manufacturer to say their car makes 400 flywheel hp and find out that it only makes 375. A classic example of under rated power was the 2003/2004 ford mustang cobras. They were factory rated at 390hp 390tq but when owners took there car to be dyno'ed they found that they were usually making close to 390hp/390tq to the wheels. I have not seen it but have heard that the 2002 chevy camaro ss and 2002 pontiac firebird ws6's were also examples of under rated cars. There is a point where lots of tq will overcome hp though, like if you have a car that has 300hp and 500tq vrs a car with 400hp and 300tq, the car with 500tq will probally run the faster 1/4 mile time. I know Ford is messing around with an electronic mustang that does not use any gas at all and it makes 350hp and over 1000tq I believe. This car will run the 1/4 mile just as fast as the new chevy corvette that makes 600hp. So there is some give and take, but as far as on a 1 for 1 basis, hp is usually better for overall speed then tq.

The more HP, the higher top speed. The more Torque, the faster you accelerate and the more weight you can tow or carry. It is true that a smaller amount of Hp goes to the wheels. That is because it uses some power to turn the flywheel and drivetrain. Some tuners get light weight flywheels and they mae their cars lighter so you can get more power to the wheels.