Originally Posted by NegativeGeForce
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...
You are wrong in your theoretical case.
If the car was operating in a vacuume then the car would have the same acceleration from 4K to 10K RPM.
Since the car has to deal with increasing drag at increasing speeds in your specified case the car will accelerate slower as speeds increase even if torque remains the same.
The best clarification for this debate is that torque is what accelerates cars but it takes HP to battle drag and reach high speeds.
For example my 930 was the fastest production car of the 80s. Bone stock it only had 295 HP at 5500 RPMs but what made it accelerate quickly was 420 ft-lbs of torque at 4000 RPMs.