I'm in love with my new car....

[Tabby1963]

I bought her with birthday money and savings and she's wonderful to drive; big, stong, powerful, but gentle too. She's 7, nearly 8 years old but immaculate. I glide to work now and get such a thrill . My DH has not yet had a go but is desperate to and I will let him drive her at the weekend.

I have never felt this much attachment to a car, it's weird. I feel so protective and don't want to park anywhere remotely dodgy in case she gets 'hurt'. Bloody looney. I have told the cats that I will cut their paws of if they dare to sleep on her bonnet...

There must be someone here on mn who gets what I am saying or am I a lost cause, I don't care.

Bartman

... it's the torque that you feel as you accelerate

No, that would be power - acceleration is proportionate to power (for a given gear ratio).

You are correct but I'm not talking about the actual acceleration. I'm talking about perceived acceleration - ever driven a tdi and thought 'this goes well' when it's actually quite a slow car?

More accurately it's the rate of change of torque (or jerk) that fools the body.

I LOVE my xtrail too. Its nearly dead but I'm hanging on to it for dear life getting every last drop of juice from it. We live in the sticks and it bounces its way up mud trails and through pot holes quite happily (probably why its nearly dead)

it's the rate of change of torque (or jerk)

And if we're going to be derivative, jounce is the rate of change of jerk.

Mittens and Bartman you are both getting very technical here , I'm impressed if uncomprehending.

littleredsquirrel, will you be able to afford another one? Hope the X-Trail Angel is shining good fortune upon you .

I hope you and your car are very happy together.

We all loved my last car so much that when we upgraded we put her into retirement in the garage. My dd would have been traumatised if we part-exd her, she was part of the family

I am exactly the same... Bought new car last week and I keep inventing excuses to go out in it. It's so lovely and shiny and even smells nice

neat , I stand and look at mine from the upstairs window. I am thinking of calling her Gloria, courtesy of Lunatic . Husband rolled his eyes when I mentioned this. He is getting to drive her tonight when we go to Glasgow to see Top Gear Live (his xmas pressie from me).

tooearly, aww, what type of car was she?

When I walk back from the school run (gutted it's not further so I have to drive) I look at all the cars in the cul de sac and conclude that mine is nicer. Every time. I even cleaned the baby's hands and face before putting her in the car seat as she has rice cake crumbs and I didn't want to mark the upholstery.

Give it three months and it'll look as disgusting as my old car did!

Bartman

More accurately it's the rate of change of torque (or jerk)

Just read that properly: jerk is not the rate of change of torque, it is the rate of change of acceleration. As mentioned, acceleration is proportional to power, so if anything jerk would be equivalent to rate of change of power.

Torque output can remain constant as a car accelerates, if the engine has a flat torque curve; the power then increases proportionally with revs (and therefore so does acceleration, i.e. jerk).

Tabby1963 she is a Picasso so nothing special lol but my dd loves her so much she cried in the car showroom and refused to even look at the new cars with us. Our POC (precious old car) is comfortable in the garage while I use the drive for the new car and DH is forced to park on the road

Yes WM you're right about the definition of jerk - it was incorrectly explained to me. Obviously power is derived from torque and RPM. Any way the point that I'm making on a massive tangent from the OP is that the sensation of fast acceleration that one experiences in a slow car (usually a tdi or low power turbo petrol) is due to the high rate of change of torque - it is that which tricks the mind.