This may seem like a stupid question to a lot of you, but it's always blows my mind why people say shit like "well can your car rev to 8,500 rpm and not hit redline?..I don't think so!" (see escort thread a few down)

my question is, why the fuck do you want to rev the shit out of your engine in order to get anywhere?..classic example is the Honda S2000...good car, no torque, and you have to rev it to 8,000 rpm to even get any power out of it. My trans-am cruises at 90mph around 2,500 rpm, and does 30 mph without even touching the gas....I know there's differences in gearing, horsepower, transmisisons, etc etc etc. but why is it such a cool thing to have to rev the shit out of your engine to get any power?