[QUOTE username=stickshifter userid=8617054 postid=1332750076]
Hi Mark,
Yes, you are absolutely right - as is emax. I appreciate your comments! Maximum horse power and torque numbers are just a small part of vehicle performance (a fact I did recognize in my previous posts). What maximum power numbers do not tell us is when the power is delivered. In modern forced induction engines, full power is reached at low rpms, and then the power curve stays quite flat for the next few thousand rpms. This provides much better driving characteristics than a typical naturally aspirated six-cylinder, where the power often arrives at over 3500 rpms. If the engine is not very torquey (3rd Gen Tacoma, for example), you have to rev it out like crazy to make power. Combine that with high elevation, and you have an anemic engine at lower rpms. On back roads in the mountains, I regularly down-shift into first gear (manual transmission). As anyone with experience driving manuals knows, this is not a good downshift. I know that the Grenadier will drive much better than a vehicle with a naturally aspirated engine with similar max power numbers. I'm really looking forward to a test-drive. I truly hope that between the forced induction (power arriving at low pms), and the ZF 8-speed, the Grenadier will be able to accelerate at any speed and road-grade. There is no way I am buying another vehicle that can't cope with mountain driving, and certainly not at twice the price I paid for my current truck. So I am cautious - but consider me cautiously optimistic. All the best![/QUOTE]
Perhaps you mentioned it earlier and I missed it but Iâm curious why you arenât standing in line at Land Rover of Denver (or wherever the nearest JLR dealer is to you) waiting for a L663 Defender P400? 400hp/400tq with the ZF8 makes for a plenty fast truck for me even in the mountains, and my other cars over the past 18 years have been Porsche Turbos and GT cars so Iâm not a stranger to acceleration.
I too wonder why BMWâs turbo 3.0 I-6 makes 120hp less than Jaguarâs, as well as considerably less torque (350 vs 400, iirc). Whether I will overlook that and keep the IG and sell my P400 when my number comes up or not remains to be seen once the IG gets to the US. But Iâm still puzzled about the discrepancy in output.