How do Torque and HP differ?

And when racing 1/4s, you usually have exactly one final drive ratio to get the max out of your combo, so you can't play the ratio game anymore.She is gonna have to do it on motor.Mega-torque at idle to 3000, will not help one bit.
But on the street mega hp at 7000 will not help very much,mostly cuz 7000 even in first is usually speeding.And you are gonna have to drive through that lower part of the rpm band for a good bit of time to get where the power starts.
Whereas mega torque at idle to 3500 to 4000 is really big fun.Make it stick, and even more funner.Here you can play the torque-multiplication to good advantage, especially with more tranny gears.
A few years ago, I was running an 833o/d box with a GV behind it. This gave me 7 very tight useable tranny ratios with a double o/d. This turns 4.88s into 2.53s for hiway cruising, and put my 367 at 6100 at 60mph at the top of second gear.Using the GV to split gears this was 3 actual ratios; 1st, 1o/d, and 2nd, with just 1 manual shift.
Yum!
On the street, if you can't do it with motor,gears and more Average HP per unit of time, will often get it done!
I went from a 292/509/108 cam with a 2.66 low 4spd plus 3.91s to 4.30s,
to 270/.549/110 cam,with the above 7spd combo, and was waaaaay happier.It didn't take long tho and I pulled the 4.88s, in favor of the 4.30s,and eventually settled on 3.55s.
Currently I'm running a 276/.571/110 and the GV behind the 3.09low/Direct 4th box, and 3.55s.This is my favorite,mostly.............. It doesn't get the fuel mileage that the 270 got. :(