How the Horsepower War Was Replaced by the Torque War

Not too long ago, the three arch-rivals from Germany were dueling in a gruesome war that was looking almost strictly at the horsepower rating of every engine. That was not the best thing for anyone, let alone manufacturers.

Sure, we got to see some really interesting naturally aspirated engines pushing more than 100 HP per liter at times, numbers that are simply incredible if you stop and think about it. However, in order to get up to 400 or 500 ponies you’d have to use a plant that was more than generous in size that was also really bad for the environment.

A lot of people are blaming the disappearance of the naturally aspirated mills on environmentalists and their green approach towards our future. Be that as it may but they are also ‘to blame’ for the incredible numbers we’re seeing pushed out of turbocharged engines these days.

Just look at the M133 plant used on the A45 AMG Mercedes-Benz. That unit makes 360 HP and 450 Nm (332 lb-ft) of torque out of just 2 liters. That’s mind blowing but it was with units like that that the cold horsepower war was slowly replaced by a much more subtle torque war.

Notice the small horsepower gains current cars show compared to their predecessors?

In the past, a new model used to come out with bing changes in the horsepower department compared to its predecessor. I’ll use a simple example to show exactly what I mean.

The original M3, the E30, used a 2-liter inline 4-cylinder plant that had 192 HP. Of course, a variety of other models came out later on but we’re going to compare it to the E36 model that was launched with a 3-liter inline 6-cylinder engine that made 282 HP. That’s a 90 HP increase and, to put in percentage, close to a 50% increase.

Then came the E46 model that used a 3.2-liter inline 6-cylinder making 343 HP. That was another important increase in the horsepower department, this time of 51 HP. Admittedly a lower increase but still quite important.

To top it all off, the E92 M3 came out with a 4-liter V8 making 420 HP. Basically, to raise the counter by 77 HP, the engine had to grow in size, quite a lot. By this rate, the new F82 M4 should’ve come out with a 5-liter V10. But it didn’t.

You see, turbocharging stepped in and allowed the new model not only to use a smaller engine but also increase performance. This time though, the aim was on torque and not power. With a small 11 HP increase, the M4 brought 40 percent more torque and made a huge difference.

Forced Induction is the driving force behind the new torque war

Since all manufacturers have to abide to the downsizing trend, the torque war will still wage on from now on. You might say that I only showed you examples from BMW’s camp but you’d be wrong. The competition did exactly the same thing.

While BMW migrated to a line-up made of turbocharged plants alone, others followed suit or switched sides even before the Munich-based company. Furthermore, when I said ‘torque war’ I wasn’t talking about one company.

The war between BMW and Mercedes-Benz was and still is as fierce as ever, no matter the horsepower rating. Just like their counterparts, the Stuttgart-based company follows the same route but only at a slower pace.

For example, the new Mercedes-AMG C63 model uses a smaller, 4-liter V8 unit instead of the old 6.2-liter atmospheric plant. It’s almost an identical story in the horsepower race too. The old unit used to make 457 HP and 600 Nm (442 lb-ft) of torque while the new one make just 19 more horsepower but 50 Nm (470 lb-ft) more of torque. And that’s for the base model. The smaller torque difference comes from the fact that the previous model was basically 50 percent bigger than the new one and could make a ludicrous amount of twist already.

Examples like this can be found throughout the two manufacturers’ line-ups wherever there are direct rivals. The ML63 AMG for example has 517 HP and 700 Nm (516 lb-ft) of torque while the new X5 M has 750 Nm (553 lb-ft), 70 more than its predecessor, while the horsepower number went up by just 15 units. Even so, the ML63 AMG is an old model and I’m willing to bet that the new one will have a modest growth in power and a huge one in torque.

Where is this heading?

On SUVs huge torque numbers like these make sense, but on other models they are really redundant. At the moment, Mercedes-Benz is the leader of the German trio (M-B, BMW, Audi) having plenty of models that go upwards of 700 Nm (516 lb-ft) and go even up to 1,000 Nm (737 lb-ft). That’s just ludicrous if you ask me.

These are numbers that were usually reserved for trucks not too long ago. Furthermore, you’ll rarely get to use more than 50 percent of it, on any kind of road. Basically, unless you go to a proper track, that’s all bragging rights. Is it all worth it? How did it come to this?

The answer lies in the turbocharging technology everyone is investing in right now. This is the new way of showing your eternal rival that your engineers know more than theirs. That’s exactly how we ended up with land missiles like the new S65 AMG model that is limited to 1,001 Nm (738 lb-ft). That’s right, it’s limited to that amount because the engine is apparently capable of more but using all of its grunt would render it unusable.

Will it end?

With the hybrid future ahead of us, signs are the torque war will get even worse. The biggest issue with turbocharging is that it brings forward that dreaded ‘turbo lag’. In order to deal with it more and more manufacturers use electric motors that chip in when the turbos aren’t spooled up.

The best thing about this kind of setup is that you get instant torque from the electric unit from 1 RPM but guess what? That will translate into even more torque in the near future.

The i8 for example has 570 Nm (420 lb-ft) at its disposal even though it uses only a 1.5-liter 3-cylinder internal combustion unit. That’s because of the electric motor that’s working next to it, of course, but it’s just one example of how big the twist number can get thanks to hybridization.

And let us not forget the hypercars of today that are taking full advantage of this concept. All of them use relatively small internal-combustion engines (compared to the output they have and the purpose they serve) with huge turbos on them accompanied by electric motors to reduce turbo lag to zero. That’s the sort of technology that’s going to keep us going for the next few years without depleting the petrol reserves and completely destroying the environment.

As for the torque war, it will keep on waging on until it will be replaced by a new concept. Maybe the fuel-cell war, who knows...