[Alastor]

Originally Posted by revetec

I will again ask everyone on the way home from work to drive your vehicle in a selected gear (say 2nd) and bring the revs up to your engine's peak power and then give it full throttle and feel the acceleration. Then redo the test at peak torque or even half the revs and feel the acceleration. IT WILL BE GREATER. Yes the vehicle will be going a greater speed at the peak power which means more work is being done, but we are talking acceleration here and the power you will use at the better acceleration will be much lower than your peak power.

This reasoning is flawed.

Let, Power = Torque x Speed

Assuming for a single gear that acceleration is directly proportional to torque, we can just look at torque.

So Acceleration = Torque, and Torque = Power / Speed

You are comparing different torque outputs, by varying both power and speed. How can you establish the influence of power on torque/acceleration when you don’t keep speed constant?

This question isn't unique to 'power vs torque'. It is a general question of engineering/scientific practice.