Horsepower vs. Torque ?

[rboe]

Now you have introduced the dirty real world. To create that power you have to pump fuel and air into the motor then pump the by products out. That process is messing and frought with compromises on the intake side and exhaust side. You can tune the intake manifold for certain rpm ranges but not all, same for the exhaust (e.g. the old two cycle motors that would suddenly "come on the pipe" as the pipe design would help the pumping action).

Then you toss in regulations for clean burning (and typically the engineers, knowing how the tests for clean burning are done will design to the tests to a degree), or the job the motor is intended to do (steady running at lower rpms like in a cargo ship vs. a dragster) then the mechanical slop in gearing or chain that controls the valve train - it gets pretty messy.

I think the Honda engineers designed the torque curve for riders, not to look good in the quarter mile in the latest Cycle Magazine - kudo's to them for that.