This got me thinking, as I have two cars that drive totally differently, my 18 month old Cooper and my 34 year old Triumph GT6.
The Cooper has more power than the Triumph but the Cooper is however heavier and much less torquey than the GT6 so I did some calculations to compare.
Cooper kicks out 115bhp weighs in at 1150kg and that calculates out at exactly 100bhp/tonne. Torque wise the Cooper produces 149Nm of Torque so that's 129Nm/Tonne.
The GT6 kicks out 104BHP and weighs in at 922Kg and that calculates out at 112bhp/tonne. Torque is 158Nm so that's 171 Nm/Tonne. A better Torque to weight ratio than a Cooper S
.
So power to weight ratio and torque to weight ratio wise the GT6 is much better than the Cooper, however it's about 1 sec slower on 0-60 and about 10 mph slower on top speed. I would have expected the GT6 to be somewhat more aerodynamic than the Cooper as well as it's so low and has very sleek lines.
When it comes to drive-ability the GT6 is much easier to drive fast providing the roads are not too twisty (after all the suspension design is over 30 years old and not exactly state of the art). Overtaking say 40 - 70mph is also appreciably more rapid in the GT6 and it really pulls like a train from low revs. Having said that, keep the Cooper on the boil by keeping the Revs up and it's definitely the quicker of the two cars.
So my conclusion is that Torque makes a car more easy to drive fast.....
I do enjoy being able to drive both of my cars, the character is so different and both are really good for posing
