stupid question but..
 

im having trouble undstanding something.. what exactly does torque do? and how does it compare from hp. is it important?

Maybe thingk of it of shaking hands, one guy grabs your hand and crushes it at first contact, the other guy sqeezes it slow at first but pulverizes it after a second or two? Torque is quick grabbing power, hp is total power, not sure if that is a good explaination or not, hope it helps:)

Torque is (force x distance), ie "how hard are you twisting"

RPM is "how fast are you twisting"

With gearing, you can create immense amounts of torque at a cost of RPM. Or, you can do the opposite. (Think of a 10-speed bike. 1st gear = big torque, slow RPMs. 10th gear = little torque, but high RPMs.)

If you want more torque without sacrificing RPMs, or visa versa, you simply need more horsepower, which is (torque * RPM) / 5252. Gear ratios cannot create power unfortunately. ;)

For more info (and to avoid the rampant fallacies you'll hear about torque/HP--ie "horsepower sells cars but torque wins races") check out the three articles titled "How To Get Maximum Acceleration" at www.modulardepot.com


\/\/\/ oh yeah and that one too, although it may be more in-depth than you wanted.