When compairing two motors with simular shaped curves and one is higher at every rpm point it is easier to pick the winner with some certainty. When the shapes are different (flat vs peaky) or peaks occur at different levels (higher and lower) and or at different different rpm points (requiring different gear ratios) it all gets complicated. There are trade off points somewhere along the spectrum of each variable. Often it can be hard to judge where the trade off points are. Ultimately it will be a stopwatch or checkerd flag that decides at a race track. And on the street it's decided by a fun meter attached to the seat of your pants. This might explain why so many street motors appear to not be optimized for the race track, whatever type of race track that might be. For what its worth, I've looked and not been able to find a standarard for calibration of a fun meter.
