HP or Torque?

[henk4]

a bit error in ur example cotterik

diesals to the extent of my knowledge cant rev very high and torque only occurs down low

Not quite, the previous generation Golf GTi TD is known to easily outperform the petrol GTIm both with 150 BHP.
The same goes for the current BMW 530i and 530d, (not even the new 535d).

The best performing 1-series bmw is the 120d.

[jcp123]

That's something my car would never do... or else it would take me a while to get some speed.

I was thinking about this thread today and drove for a while shifting before getting to 3000Rpms in my Civic. It was ok on regular 45Mph streets.

Even my figures for shift points were on the extreme low end, when I'm taking it especially easy. Most of the time with normal driving it shifts at 14-1600rpm, and then cruises comfortably along at 45mph at 1600rpm, or as low as ~20mph at about 900rpm in top.