The ITAC continues to noodle over how to equitably consider what we all seem to think of as "torque" in our specification math, and I have a question: Without getting bogged down in math, can I sample your first principles on the issue...?

Some questions for consideration...

** When you say "a Mustang has a lot of torque" or "Hondas don't have any torque," what do you mean? Drill into your own language and try to be as explicit as possible about what you are thinking when you say that.

** How would you compare these four cars, in terms of their "torque" relative to one another, AND how would you expect them to compete against one another (there no "right" answers, so far as I know)...

Car 1 - 150 hp, 150 lb-ft of torque

Car 2 - 110 hp, 190 lb-ft of torque

Car 3 - 190 hp, 110 lb-ft of torque

Car 4 - 170 hp, 170 lb-ft of torque

** If they were all otherwise the same, which of those cars would you choose to race against the others? Why?

** (The first hard one) - How is it that you think "torque" makes a difference in competitiveness? If we all have different conceptions of the mechanism by which it matters, we'll probably never get anything like a consensus answer re: how to manage this variable - or variables.

** (The second hard one) - The ITAC can really only control a very few factors, in terms of specifications we can set, the key one of course being weight. How do the factors that we MIGHT control bear on torque, to your way of thinking? Is it safe to say for example that more weight mitigates against a "torque" advantage?

** Finally (and this is kind of an easy one, since it's about philosophies) - Do you even think we should try to accommodate torque in the processes we use? One philosophy says, "We don't try to control a lot of the variables that make a difference to competitiveness, and since we don't have a very good grasp on torque, we should ignore it." Another would suggest that "mathematical models are good enough that a digital car on a digital track can reasonably approximate the real thing, so we should try to take any and all variables that we can into consideration, to make the cars as equal as possible." Where are you on these issues?

THANKS!

K

PS to ITAC members. I'd be interested to hear from the membership before we dive into the conversation ourselves.