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Message: <blockquote data-quote="E34EuroTouring" data-source="post: 69112" data-attributes="member: 1026">Simplest way to view it is :Torque gives you acceleration. Horsepower gives you top-speed.The gear cogs and diffs are just multipliers to allow/disallow good acceleration and achieving the required topspeed. If you ain't got the HP, you cannot achieve the rated top speed. Since your aerodynamic drag is so strong that your forward pushing torque+hp is LESS than drag!. ie . Terminal velocity!.You can see that very old boxy cars and trucks can hardly go past 120 Kph, since the drag is too much for the puny engines to over-come.But then, if you look at SuperCars like McLaren F1 or Porsche Garrera GT,  they have a different problem where the aero will need to push the car down  to stay on the road, or else it will be air borne!. Just compare, a small light plane takes off about 60-70 mph, while a 747 needs 140-150mph for take off speed. Of course their wings assist them do it.  Getting past 190 mph for a car is a very very difficult engineering task to overcome. I doubt if the McLaren test driver did not consider he could die when he hit the 241mph  (thats 385 kph!!!) world record speed!. Scary.</blockquote>