Originally posted by Fast-Ford
That isn't entirely true........some cars need rpms to make torque. Generaly, these cars are poor contenders on oval tracks or hilly, tight road courses. I said this above in another post: you can't run at high rpm everywhere. V8 power doesn't need high rpm to put out power. Same with the 350Z, it has decent acceleration down low as well.
With oval track racing, which bears a lot of similatities to everyday driving in the sense that you use low rpm mostly (everybody doesn't run stock street cars at 6-8000 rpm very often) you simply can't get by on RPMS alone.....it just doesn't work.
The S2000 has what? 150 ft/lbs of torque? Its still a contender on any road course. With it's light weight, you can enter the turns faster. By entering the turns faster, you exit the turns faster, thereby negating the need for "low end torque to pull you out of the turns."
V8 power doesn't need high rpms to put out power? It woudn't make shit if it couldn't rev past 1000rpms would it? Torque is no more significant than horsepower and vice versa.