Another 318 set up
Now that's supporting my argument a bit, but that 1050 lbs-ft of torque at 2000 rpm or so is the reason why you can tow that heavy load without having to use some crazy low gears. Torque is what you need to move the load,
The hp is what's needed, if it takes a minimum of 400 hp to do the task you need to make at least 400 hp but torque theoretically be any amount eg.. 1 lbs-ft x 2,100,800 rpm or 2,100,800 lbs-ft x 1 rpm both equal 400 hp and so do an infinite amount of other combinations but obviously most are very impractical for our applications, were generally gonna make it between 4500-7500 rpms with the engines we have.
horsepower is what gets you there quickly most of the time.
Hp ain't really about quickly or high rpm, yes more hp can do a task more quickly aka haul a heavy load up a steep hill quicker (higher mph). Hp is basically responsible for every aspect of you driving your car, it takes different amounts of hp to do all the different types of task you require your engine to do while driving, don't matter if were talking at 1500 rpm or 7500 and beyond rpm it's Hp, and that hp is made up of a ratio of torque and rpm.
So when other people say torque is not important and use lower gears or a closer ratio transmission, they don't realize that the achievement of using a lower gear is more torque multiplication for an higher reving engine where more of its torque is higher up in the rpm range along with the higher horsepower.
Gearing is to get you into the powerband at whatever speed your doing, ideally an infinite drive that kept and engine at peak power during the whole quarter mile run would be the fastest.
Also yes gearing multiples torque (gain) but it does it by trading rpm (loss) for that torque, if a drivetrain didn't take energy to turn hp would stay the same from crank to the ground but torque and rpm (gain and loss) would just be swapped back and forth through the gears, why power would stay the same.