Kinda hard to explain. (and yes 700 horsepower is a lot, most cars range from 140-300 range, and then you get into trucks and sports cars and the numbers go up with the price)
Think of it this way, the more torque you have the faster you can accelerate and the more horsepower you have the high speed you can go. That's a very very broad generalization though
Pretty much. Torque is the twisting power the engine can put out. Horsepower is is how much that twisting power is done over a period of time. Thus, an engine rated for 700ft/lbs of torque puts out enough twisting force that would move an object 700 pounds 1 foot, or a 1 pound object 700 feet.
1 Horsepower is basically 32,000ft/lbs per minute. Translated out to a roatating shaft, like an engine, they rate the horsepower as the amount of torque an engine puts out, times the amount of RPM's the engine is running at, and that answer is divided by 5252. I could go into a lot of examples which would bore you, but the general answer is, when you're buying a car and looking at the power numbers, Horsepower is nice and all, but look at the torque number, how high in the RPM range it falls, and how wide the peak torque band is. If the torque number is high in the RPM bracket and is considerably lower than the HP number, your acceleration and towing/hauling capacity while on the road will suffer no matter what the HP number is. Meanwhile, if your HP and Torque numbers are right around the same number, chances are you will have a good amount of power lower in the RPM range and can accellerate faster and can haul/tow more things without having to race the engine.
