Blowfish said:
For those who mentioned Hp is a figure and torque is all that matters, you're dead wrong. Torque is all about accelaration and moving your car. Torque determines your rate of accelaration. So without horspepower, all you can get is a high amount of pick-up speed and your car will stay at a stagnant speed after it runs out of juice ( in this case, HP) Horsepower & ratios affect your top speed not torque.
So before you think bout getting ridiculous amounts of torque which is totally impossible, think again.
i know its just my opinion, but i do agree(partially) with acbc. i'm not saying you are wrong, but i certainly disagree with that "dead wrong" part.
HP really are just figures that show how much your engine is working. i think you should know the equation of 1lb-ft of torque @ 5252 = 1hp right? and you should know that the dyno machine measure torque to calculate hp (unless you can prove that some kind of new technology that measure hp came out while i'm not looking :D cuz its been a while i read about that).
high torque low hp, like those diesel turbo right? great amount of torque but low hp, cuz they only revs up to 4k rpm sometime. so its not even hitting the 5252rpm mark. but thats not the point here. point is, they are powerful, but they ran out of breath very fast, giving you insane acceleration up to maybe 70km/h and ran out of breath.
so, if argue theorically, all you have to do to avoid this is change the final drive. too much torque? but only run until 3k rpm? no prob, just use a 1:1 final drive. everyone with knowledge should know this will improve the top speed while sacrificing acceleration. so in the end you'll have a car with great top speed as well. for top speed, IMHO, as long as you have the correct FD ratio, and the torque of the engine is still sufficient to push or accelerate or maintain speed, your car will have high top speed (ignoring aerodynamic drag and friction ofcourse).
its the same reason that some of the HSV driver swap to 2.5:1 final drive ratio for higher speed high way cruising with lower revs to conserve fuel (they really need to... 6liter v8 wor i also wan safe petrol..)