[chittychittybangbang]

"Horsepower gets you bragging rights, but torque wins you stoplight races"

Fixed

For all out drag racing horsepower is still faster. For example, the A3 gas 2.0T and GTI 2.0T are still faster than the A3 TDI and Golf TDI. The torque of the TDI makes them feel about as fast in daily driving but when you stomp on the pedal all the way, you do notice the 2.0T is faster.

But how many times a day does a car get redlined with 100% throttle? Most of the time there is traffic or the road doesn't permit this safely for more than 5 seconds. Many people never even go to engine redline over the life of the car. For this reason, I believe that torque is more applicable to most people's driving styles.