Heres one way of explaining it...say we have a high reving engine here...2 liters.

engine makes peak torque at 4000 rpm at 100 ft lb of torque and stays level to redline wich is 10,000 rpm.

Now...Would the car accerate the same from 4k to 10k? NO. The torque is being used faster and faster in the same time of space...THUS accerating the car much faster at 10k rpm then 4k rpm. Torque just defines the power, but horespower is there for a reason too...to show how fast that torque is being used...

Why the FUCK would anyone create such a scale? Because torque isnt everything when it comes to acceration and power.

I think horepower is a good way to advertise the car's power because it both defines the torque and well it actually could be usefull when talking about the overall power of the car. Horsepower isnt there to just sell the car, but to show exacly what the car is doing with the torque.

If torque sold cars I guess everyone that makes cars would just give the car a nice peak in the lower rpm and throw horsepower out the window. Horsepower can be more then torque in most smaller/higher reving compact cars, but why not advertise torque in the lower hp/higher torque cars? There are reasons that most people may be too ignorant to really know why things are they way they are. Horsepower is a easier way to simply state the engines acceration power since it does include the torque and how much is used...2 bits of information in one number. EASY