Are the HP wars over?

4x4ord wrote:
Gearing isn’t so much an issue anymore but the Powerstroke would actually stand to gain more with additional gears than the Ram. The new Powerstroke with the 10 speed has a bit of a jump going from 7th to 6th, so, it will pull down to about 2050 rpm before dropping into 6th. At 2050 it is making about 395 hp. So the Powerstroke runs between 395 and 475 hp.

The Cummins only has 6 gears but because it has such a large torque rise it does just fine with the 6 gears it has. The Cummins/ Aisin can drop to 3rd gear at 2100 rpm bringing the engine up to just over 2800 rpm. At 2100 rpm the Cummins is able to produce 395 hp. So with only 6 gears it can operate in the narrow power window of 395 to 420 hp.


Edit: This is assuming the Cummins makes its 420 peak hp at 2800 and 1075 peak torque at 1800 and the Powerstroke making its peak 475 HP at 2600 and 1050 peak torque at 1600 rpm.

With the newer 8/10speed transmissions, it's less of an issue getting a gear ratio that keeps the motor at near ideal RPM to maximize power output.

Certainly all these motors have tons of torque, so they will still do fine with a 5 or 6 speed transmission...hence why we are unlikely to see large increases in HP moving forward. There just isn't much to gain.