Power is directly related to torque, allways. If at a given rpm you have more torque, you will have also more power.

The differences between the 280 and the 300 hp engines is that the 280 has more torque below 5500rpm (more or less) and for that, more power in that rpm zone, and the 300 hp has more torque above 5500rpm, and for that more power in that zone.

With power or torque you have to look allways all the graph, no just the maximum value at an exactly rpm point.

 

A lot of people here seems to get the idea of torque, and yes it is very important. Torque is what make your car moves and accelerates. Horsepower is the power that an engine make at given rpm.

The best example for this is RX-8. The car make 204hp (Mazda rate it at 240ish at first, but later the send out later to apologize RX-8 owner that the number were off and offer to buy the car back at certain price) but it only has 130 lb ft of torque. That why it so slow because it got no torque.

So, hp is doesn't mean much unless it got torque to compliment it.

 

Torque is not what accelerates your car. Why do people rev to redline and not at where peak torque occurs? Your car will not accelerate if you shift at peak torque.

Your Mazda analogy is also flawed because the RX-8 makes less horsepower as advertised not less torque.

 

a little OT but:
After a nice weeknd i was able to do some (butt dyno) tests.. My friend has G37 spd (with 9,000 miles) and while i thought they were different i had no idea how different they really are.. My car consistently pulled on his car all the way through 5 gears by a car... No comparison Now when i drove the G myself i in no way would have thought how different they cars are until i mashed the gas and did not notice the throttle response i had in the Z. All in all i think i'll take torque over HP at least in this case..

 

Your car is 300+lbs lighter than his. You dont use torque when racing from a roll.

 

whish suprised me even more.