BHP vs Torque | Which is the Real Deal and Why?

If you frequent news articles about cars you must have seen these two names a lot, torque and BHP. Some cars have more BHP and some have more torque. If you are wondering what they actually mean you’ve come to the right place.

The Basics

Torque and BHP might get complicated for someone with no background in physics. To mitigate that we will cover the basics of power and energy.

Energy

Energy is the ability to do work. There are many forms in which energy can exist and it can never be created or destroyed. Something like a car engine doesn’t create energy, it just converts fuel into energy. Unit of energy is defined as Joules.

To give an idea of how energy works, take the example of walking to someplace. Assume you have 100 Joules and it takes 70 Joules to reach the place. This means you’ll expend 70 joules to reach the place. Pretty easy to understand when it’s broken down.

With that covered let’s discuss power.

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Power

Power is the rate of using energy. Take the same example discussed in energy. You expend 70 Joules to reach your destination and now assume it takes you 10 seconds to reach there. This means you expended 7 Joules per second. If you were to increase the energy expended per second (power) you’ll reach the same destination faster.

Vector and Scalar Forces

A little out of the topic thing that we need to cover which will make understanding power and energy even easier.

When a force is free of any direction it is called a scalar quantity. Energy and power are both scalar quantities as they are independent of the direction they are applied to.

Torque, on the other hand, is a vector quantity. To explain torque in layman terms it is a rotational force. Which means it has a magnitude(force applied) in a rotating movement (direction).

This means BHP is scalar while torque is a vector quantity.

This covers the basics of energy and power and now we can move to the complex terms like BHP and Torque.

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What Is BHP?

BHP is pretty much the power of an engine in simple terms. The Brake Horse Power is the unit of power of an engine without any losses like heat and noise.

The BHP determines the acceleration and top speed of a vehicle. Often fast and quick vehicles will focus more on the BHP than the torque. Let’s discuss why they don’t care much about the torque while heavier vehicles want more torque than BHP.

What Is HP Of A Car?

BHP is defined as the power of an engine without any losses while HP or Horsepower is the power of a car with losses included. There are two types of HP, crank HP and wheel HP. The crank HP is the value of power generated by an engine without transmission losses. Wheel HP is the power at the wheels which means it includes the losses of transferring power from the engine to the wheels.

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What is Torque?

The measure of a force which rotates about an axis is known as torque. In simple words, the force at which something rotates and as you know a lot of parts in a car have rotational motion. From pushing of the piston to rotating the flywheel, all of this is done by the torque.

Torque determines how much turning force a vehicle has. This means you can load up a vehicle with a lot of weight and it’ll still be able to cruise at a decent speed. This, however, means slower cars.

How BHP And Torque Affect Car Performance

To keep it short and sweet, BHP affects the top speed and acceleration of a car while torque affects the amount of load you can carry without performance degradation.

Take for example Kawasaki Ninja H2 which is built for speed. It has the power of 197 BHP and 134 Nm torque. Compare it to something like a Harley Davidson CVO which is a cruise bike and has 107BHP and 166Nm Torque. The Kawasaki built to reach high speeds will definitely have better acceleration and top speed than Harley Davidson but the later will be better at performance with more baggage loaded in.

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Which Is The Real Deal?

Might sound like a diplomatic response but both of them are equally necessary. Keep in mind we have barely explained the BHP and torque and they are way more complicated than the scope of this blog. So to keep it simple if you want more speed and acceleration prefer a car with good BHP and if want a vehicle to haul stuff around at minimum performance problems you should consider more torque.