General Power and Torque Comparisons

[Jazzy Jase]

In a moment of boredom I decided to take all three official power/torque graphs and put them into a spreadsheet. I then made some comparison graphs. Here they are:

As expected, the Diesel has a a good deal more torque than the two petrol engines, but has a much shorter rev range and I can now understand how Autocar have said the 1.4 is quite peaky - It doesn't make that much more power than the 1.2 until after 4000 rpm. Personally I love engines that are very revvy, but the 1.2 and diesel make much more sense for laid-back drivers!

 

[Schwenck]

You have too much time on your hands! Oh hang on, that's just the kind of thing I would have done too...

 

[The Beard]

Me too, if I knew what the hell a spreadsheet was. I find it interesting what journalists have to say about different kinds of engines and have come to the conclusion that the great British driving public haven't a clue what's under the bonnet or what the car is capable of. As the saying goes, it's not what you've got, but what you do with it that counts. My Panda 1.3 MJT does 55-60mpg and can make quite good progress through town or country. My wife's Stilo 1.4 16v is equally quick in both situations and does 38-42mpg. The difference is not what these engines do but the way that they do it. Look at the 0-60 times for both cars and you will see they are very similar. Drive at 70 mph and both are revving at about the same speed. I suppose what I am getting at is that with either 1.3. or 1.4 the result will be very similar, it's just how you get there that makes the differene