Originally Posted by andypj
What suprised me is that there are so many other things that you think would impact on this, like gearing, aerodynamics.... but really its all about power and weight.
Gearing on production cars is not hugely different.. Cars with shorter gearing usually have less torque. Case in point Toyota 1.8 T-sport (180 bhp and a mere 165 Nm at a silly rpm) or the Civic Type R (200 Bhp and again 190-something Nm at a silly rpm again). both these cars have short gearing cause they need it to overcome the shortage of torque..