General Knowledge Flashcards
What is the difference between engine CC and horsepower?
CC stands for cubic centimeter. In conjunction with internal combustion engines the CC describes the size of the combustion chamber, i.e. the space inside the cylinder which is left when the piston has travelled all its way down. This is called the displacement of the engine. If a cylinder has 500 cc it means that inside the cylinder there is a maximal space of 500 cubic centimeters. If a car has a 4 cylinder engine and each of the cylinders have 500 cc, then the engine has 2.000 cc or, in other words 2 liter. As a rule of thumb you can say, the bigger the displacement, the higher the power of the engine.
Horsepower is a measurement for power output of the engine. There are several technical standards to rate HPs, so one SAE-HP is less than a DIN-HP. One HP is roughly three quarters of a Kilowatt, which also is a mesaurment for power.
The size of the engine displacement is one factor for the power output of an engine, but it is not the only one. You can tune an engine to have more power, you can increase its ability to turn fast, you can supercharge it. So in former times an engine with 2000 cc displacement may only have an power output of 60 HP or less. Today there are 2 liter engines with 250 HP and more.
