My beloved brother recently got a new Cadillac XT6. It's their mid-size luxury SUV.
On the right side of the rear hatch, right below the window is the number "400." The vehicle has their 3.6L V6, which produces about 300 HP in this application.
WTF?
I asked my brother what the number indicated and he didn't know. He checked with the dealer and came back with something that made no sense. But here's the deal.
In the inevitable future of electric, hybrid, and gas-powered cars, there is currently no way to assess the manliness of the power train such that "we" can tell how the vehicle performs, acceleration-wise. The one common factor that is relevant to performance and to ALL power trains is torque -
They have decided to (a) measure torque in Newton-meters, rather than ft-lbs, and (b) not be very precise, as the actual number is 367. They are rounding up to the next 50.
Which begs the question, If "400" is the number on their V6's, then why is the number "200" on their turbo four's? Surely their turbo-four's have more than half as much torque as the V6's.
Welcome to the brave new world.
On the right side of the rear hatch, right below the window is the number "400." The vehicle has their 3.6L V6, which produces about 300 HP in this application.
WTF?
I asked my brother what the number indicated and he didn't know. He checked with the dealer and came back with something that made no sense. But here's the deal.
In the inevitable future of electric, hybrid, and gas-powered cars, there is currently no way to assess the manliness of the power train such that "we" can tell how the vehicle performs, acceleration-wise. The one common factor that is relevant to performance and to ALL power trains is torque -
- NOT cubic inch displacement (which does not apply to electric motors),
- NOT horsepower (which is not 100% relevant to either motor),
- NOT the number of motors - currently used by Tesla - and which makes no sense in an ICE car.
They have decided to (a) measure torque in Newton-meters, rather than ft-lbs, and (b) not be very precise, as the actual number is 367. They are rounding up to the next 50.
Which begs the question, If "400" is the number on their V6's, then why is the number "200" on their turbo four's? Surely their turbo-four's have more than half as much torque as the V6's.
Welcome to the brave new world.
