Letters

Torque To Me, Baby
I just finished reading the April '99 MT and, until this particular issue, I've always considered Motor Trend to be popular with people who have manicured fingernails and way too much stock in plastics companies. I stand chastised. This issue has renewed my interest, and I only wish that, next time I sit at a stop, you would roll up next to me with your $300,000 Bentley with gobs of melted rubber hanging off the rear quarter panels. You guys are truly sick-keep up the good work.
James Pine
Catskill, N.Y.

''The wonderful thing about torque is that torque is a wonderful thing." Place my vote in complete agreement with the theme of your April feature. It's just so satisfying to have great gobs of torque connected to the go pedal. Torque rules in the day-to-day world. As for rpm, I go to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and tune in to Speedvision for the Sunday morning F1 races. 17,000 rpm isn't all bad.
Bob Heywood
Dayton, Ohio

If anything were guaranteed in life, it would be that Motor Trend never fails to please. I just received my April issue and all I can say is ''wow!" The Viper GT-2 has to be the best all around car ever made. If you can show me a car that can out do it for under $100,000, then you're a better man than I. What I especially liked about this issue was the wicked picture of you smokin' the tires. You guys have the best jobs in the whole world-I envy you all. One last thing, I commend C. Van Tune on his closing comments on the Viper. Growing up around Mopar musclecars all my life, I can definitely understand where he's coming from. Having been in a Viper numerous times, I agree the feel of the torque at low rpm is an incredible sensation. Great work.
Craig Simpson
Cobourg, Ont., Canada

I loved the torque-fest in the April issue. Is that Bentley nuts, or what? Do you think they sell crate motors? I was planning to drop a small-block Chevy V-8 in my Vega, but to heck with that. Do you think the Continental T's 6.75-liter turbo would fit?
Bob Hartka
Plymouth, Minn.

Your magazine is king of fun-to-read articles. Your "Torque Monsters" article was great. I don't know whether to love you or hate you. P.S. Whoever is driving the Jaguar XJR on page 62 is looking pretty spooky-like he's going to hit the camera.
Matt Swartz
Cincinnati, Ohio

That steely stare belongs to me. I've spent 15 years driving sideways for photographs, so there's little chance our daredevil shutter man, Kevin Wing, was in any danger. Besides, he's a very fast runner.
-C. Van Tune

I'm glad you brought a bunch of great cars together in this month's ''Torque Monsters" article, but you're dead wrong in almost all of your assumptions. You mock people who talk about horsepower, and then you define torque as ''the neck-snapping power of a monstercar like the Dodge Viper," but torque is not power-it is a two-dimensional measurement (force and distance). Power is three-dimensional (force, distance and rate) and is what makes acceleration (also three dimensional) occur.
Shawn Readenour
Festus, Mo.

Blah, blah, blah...then my eyes glazed over and I had a flashback to Mr. Miller's high school physics class. In our book, torque = fun.
-Ed.