I get what your saying John... Let me put it this way to you...
You have two cars both weight the same both are geared to suit each engines power.. Both drivers are the same...
One car has 300whp and 500 ft. pnds of torque
Second car has 500whp and 300 ft. pnds of torque
Which car would win? Short distance the torque wins long distance maybe the horse power wins...Right or wrong?
Completely wrong.
OK, I will take the time to explain so please read and do the simple math to understand.
GEARING makes all the difference.
Let's make this easy and say that a TIRE RPM of 800rpm = 60mph
Now, we need to find out what ENGINE rpm is needed to reach any given speed. If we want 30mph that would of course need 400rpm at the wheels.
OK, your 2 examples work out this way.
300tq and 500hp means the engine is turning 8750rpm to make 500hp.
500tq and 300hp means the engine is turning 3150rpm to make 300hp.
Gear each car to be at peak HP at 30mph and you get 21.875 to 1 ratio for the 500hp and 7.87 to 1 ratio for the 300hp.
Now, multiply each engines torque by the gear ratio to find out the torque available at the wheels for each engine.
500hp/300tq: 300 x 21.875 = 6563 lb/tq at the wheels
300hp/500tq: 500 x 7.87 = 3938 lb/tq at the wheels
So, at the wheels, the 500hp engine enjoys 2625 pounds of torque at the wheels MORE than the 300hp engine.
In fact you could gear the 500hp engine to be at peak power at 45mph and it would STILL make 437 more torque at the wheels than the 300hp engine at 30mph!!!
I repeat... POWER is king.