Spotting the G

Got it? Good.

Thrust as a concept is covered frequently on the internet. Car guys struggle to define the automotive equivalent—or that sock in the lower back that occurs under hard acceleration.

There are many modern day muscle car that deliver this g-force experience. Yet if it’s thrust you seek, it’s not how fast you go, but how you go fast. This means, technically speaking, that you are looking for torque instead of raw horsepower.

I won’t explain difference between torque and horsepower here. More horsepower almost always means more speed. More horsepower does not directly translate into more thrust, which is why you’ll never see “stump pulling” and horsepower appear in the same sentence. For earth-moving pull (with what feels like a push) you need torque.

Thirty years ago, at the height of the first muscle car craze, buying torque was simple. You bought a muscle car and went for the biggest block engine you could find. Monstrous muscle car engines generated maximum torque and for brutal g-forces off the line, there will probably never be nothing like a 454, 455 or 426 Hemi.

But what the heck. These cars and engines had some issues. There were inherently inefficient, not much fun over 4000 RPM, and were fairly nose heavy, which dampens the sensation of speed.

Today, surprisngly, you have more options than you did thirty years ago. Once you are willing to face a few realities, you’ll end up with a lot more car than anything you could get back then.

The first reality is that engines today are much smaller. They also tend to be multi-valve, aluminum block overhead cam designs. In most cases, achieving maximum horsepower from these engines requires either supercharging or turbocharging—which both tend to pull rather than push you forward.

The second reality (related closely to the first) is that carmakers no longer build push-rod engines (outside of GM.). For some reason push-rod engines do a better job of generating low-end torque. They are, however, more thirsty and tend to lose power over 4500 RPMs. This is the main reason that carmakers have abandoned them.

(All but GM, that is. And here GM has stuck with two engines that continue to defy the laws of physics, or the 3800 V6 and the 350 V8.)

The third reality is that cars are getting heavier again, due to really egregious electronics. This is especially nasty, but not limited to, German cars. Unlike Mercedes and most Audis though, BMW continues to insist upon normally aspirated engines which delivers a more natural throttle response (i.e. you push down the accelerator and you move).

The final reality is that you may need to wait one more nanosecond off the line today to achieve the g-force acceleration you are looking for unless you want to go straight to the track (which is the subject for another blog). The accelerative rush you get at slightly higher RPMS fortunately can be just as brutal as anything from the 60s—and often more terrifying (German Cars and centrifugal superchargers are especially adept at high-end acceleration).

I have assembled a fairly lengthy list of cars to make the job of spotting the g easy. It is currently passing censorship and being vetted by local car dealers to assure that the cars will be available for you to drive. I have on hand–twenty five cars in three different price ranges.

The good news is that 80 percent are under 35k–well under. Some will even save you gas (comparatively speaking).